Israel’s First Lady to UN: ‘The World Must Understand Hamas Uses Rape as a Weapon’

Jerusalem, 19 August, 2025 (TPS-IL) — As the United Nations held a special session today, Tuesday, on the use of sexual violence in conflict, First Lady of Israel Michal Herzog welcomed the United Nations’ decision to add the terrorist organization Hamas to the official “black list” of entities that commit sexual crimes in violent conflicts — a move she described as “a long time coming.”

The First Lady – who has been a leading voice in raising awareness of the sexual violence carried out by Hamas terrorists on and since October 7 – noted that the evidence has been clear for months. In early 2024, the UN’s own Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, reported on Hamas’s deliberate, premeditated and systematic sexual crimes. The report now published by the UN proves the undeniable crimes, and confirms Hamas’s guilt and responsibility.

“The world must understand: Hamas use rape as a weapon,” the First Lady said. “These atrocities – rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, sexual abuse in captivity – are not incidental. They are deliberate, premeditated and systematic tools of terror. If the international community fails to condemn them, in both action and words, we risk seeing more such crimes repeated in other conflicts across the globe.”