Overview
- On June 23, Ilana Gritzewsky, an October 7 survivor and former hostage, told the U.N. Human Rights Council she was raped, beaten, kidnapped and left with lasting injuries during the attack.
- Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women, did not apologize and remained publicly unresponsive during Gritzewsky’s testimony, a reaction critics described as dismissive.
- The confrontation underscored a contradiction between a separate U.N. report that said there were reasonable grounds to believe Hamas committed sexual violence and Alsalem’s November and April public statements that questioned or dismissed those findings.
- Alsalem’s June report, titled “Violence against Mothers,” criticized Israeli actions and did not mention Hamas, a choice critics and watchdog groups say reflects bias and selective sourcing.
- The exchange has intensified calls from advocacy groups and commentators for greater accountability at the Human Rights Council and put renewed focus on how U.N. experts gather and treat survivor testimony.