Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict concluded last week her visit to Israel at the initiative of the Division for International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ and Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan.
Patten visited the headquarters of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum and met with abductees who had returned from Hamas captivity and with families of abductees who are still in Gaza. Patten listened at length to the testimonies and stories and promised to use all the means at her disposal to bring about the release of the abductees.
After her meeting, she proceeded to Camp Shura, where she met Capt. (res.) Avigail Bar Asher, head of the Military Rabbinate's Female Corpse Identification Team, who described the unit’s work as reflected through the brutal evidence discovered at the identification center since Saturday October 7.
Later, Patten toured the headquarters of Unit 105 of Lahav 433 of the Israel Police, where she was briefed about the activities of the national investigation against Hamas terrorists and the collection of evidence regarding the sexual assaults, abductions and massacres committed by the terrorists by the heads of the unit.
Patten also visited the western Negev communities, where she spoke with eyewitnesses at Kibbutz Be’eri, at the site of the Nova Music Festival and at the Nahal Oz military camp.
At Kibbutz Be’eri, Patten met with local resident Or Yelin and volunteer of the ZAKA emergency response team Yossi Landau and listened to their testimonies regarding the atrocities that were enacted there.
Patten was invited to Israel by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan so that she could witness the extent of the atrocities for herself and bring Hamas’ crimes to the attention of the international authorities.
The UN Special Representative is due to present the findings of her visit to the UN Secretary-General to facilitate the designation of a section of the annual report on sexual crimes to the events of October 7.