Palestinian militant groups, led by Hamas’s armed wing, committed “numerous” war crimes and crimes against humanity in their October 7 attack on southern Israel, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 236-page report released on Wednesday.
For the report, titled “I Can’t Erase All the Blood from My Mind’: Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel,” HRW interviewed 144 people—including witnesses, victims’ families, first responders, and medical experts—and verified and analyzed over 280 photographs and videos. They concluded that Hamas and at least four other Palestinian armed groups committed “numerous” war crimes and crimes against humanity in their attack, including, but not limited to: summary killings, hostage-taking, rape and sexual violence, and wrongful imprisonment.
“Human Rights Watch research found that the Hamas-led assault on October 7 was designed to kill civilians and take as many people as possible hostage,” said Ida Sawyer, crisis and conflict director at HRW. “The October 7 atrocities should spur a global call to action for an end to all abuses against civilians in Israel and Palestine.”
The report documented the events of October 7, when the groups targeted residential communities and social events in southern Israel in a “coordinated” attack. The targets included more than 20 cooperative communities, the cities of Sderot and Ofakim, two music festivals, and a beach party. The groups fired on civilians, attacked people trying to flee, hurled grenades and fired rocket-propelled incendiaries into homes, set houses on fire, engaged in sexual violence, and took people hostage.
One of the people interviewed, Sagi Shifroni, said that attackers tried to knock down his door and then started shooting the hinges. He described his house being set on fire:
It was pretty clear that we couldn’t stay here. If we stayed, we would be dead. At this point I decided to get out, it was more like an instinct. I opened the door of the safe room a bit and saw the whole house was on fire, so I turned to the window and opened it. I saw that the whole patio area outside was also on fire.
Because it was the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, many soldiers were on leave. This, combined with “disrupted and destroyed communications and surveillance equipment,” led to a delayed response, with the fighting continuing in many places well into the day.
By the end of their attack, the groups killed 1,195 people, including 815 civilians and 36 children. The majority of the victims were Jewish Israelis, but 79 foreign nationals were killed as well. HRW noted that the scale of the attacks made it difficult to retrieve and identify bodies, which led to a higher initial estimate before authorities and media were able to verify the casualties. In addition, the groups took over 251 people hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza. The other hostages have either died, been rescued, or been released.
Using logos on attackers’ headbands, HRW identified five Palestinian groups that participated in the attacks: Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s armed wing), Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, National Resistance Brigades and Al-Quds Brigades.
War crimes and crimes against humanity are defined under international law by the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols, as well as other treaties like the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The report said that, under these agreements, Palestinian groups’ violations included deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians and the killing of civilians or captured combatants in custody, torture and ill-treatment against individuals captured, rape and other severe forms of sexual violence, hostage-taking, pillage, looting, destruction of property, and crimes against humanity.
Victims’ families previously filed an ICC complaint alleging war crimes and genocide, leading to the ICC Prosecutor’s first visit to both Israel and Palestine. The Prosecutor later sought arrest warrants against three Hamas leaders.
Israel has been accused of several human rights abuses, including war crimes and genocide, in its response to the October 7 attacks. Gaza has been decimated in the nine months of war. Reports from the BBC and the Guardian show that at least half of the buildings in the enclave have been damaged or destroyed, including entire neighborhoods. Israeli strikes have hit places like medical facilities and refugee camps, and human rights groups have condemned Israel’s mass evacuation orders, attacks on journalists and the press, and treatment of prisoners. Nearly 2 million people, 85 percent of the territory’s population, have been displaced by the violence and more than 38,000 people have been killed—mostly civilians.
The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent a “plausible” genocide in Gaza and later issued emergency provisional measures to address the escalating humanitarian crisis. The ICC Prosecutor has also sought arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister.
HRW called for the release of the remaining hostages taken from Israel and held by Hamas and for the international community to hold perpetrators accountable for atrocities committed in Israel and Palestine. “Atrocities do not justify atrocities,” Sawyer said. “To stop the endless cycle of abuses in Israel and Palestine, it’s critical to address root causes and hold violators of grave crimes to account. That’s in the interests of both Palestinians and Israelis.”
