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Hamas urges international inquiry into allegation about sexual violations committed by its fighters during Oct. 7 attack

ISTANBUL: Hamas urged "a neutral international commission of inquiry" on Friday to look into allegations about its fighters committing sexual violations during the group's cross-border attack on Israeli locations around the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. The Palestinian resistance group rejected accusations by a UN Special envoy that its fighters sexually assaulted Israeli women during the cross-border attack. Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said in a report Monday that there are 'reasonable grounds to believe' sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred during the Hamas attack. Basem Naim, a member of the group's political bureau in Gaza, reiterated Hamas' rejection of Patten's report and stressed that the report came after Israel failed to prove any such allegations. The group also affirmed its willingness to fully cooperate with the inquiry commission and to respect its outcomes. Hamas' statement came as the UN Security Council is set to convene Monday to discuss Patten's report, according to the Times of Israel news website. UN experts expressed alarm last month about 'credible allegations' of egregious human rights violations that Palestinian women and girls continue to face in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has launched a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed more than 30,800 victims and injured nearly 73,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation. About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and tak e measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. Source: Anadolu Agency