War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed against civilians by Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, along with at least 4 additional Palestinian armed groups on October 7, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.
"Palestinian fighters committed summary killings, hostage-taking and other war crimes, and the crimes against humanity of murder and wrongful imprisonment," said the report.
The report, entitled “'I Can’t Erase All the Blood from My Mind’: Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel," also called on any government with influence over Palestinian armed groups to pressure them to release all "civilian hostages."
Several dozen cases of "serious violations of international humanitarian law at nearly all the civilian attack sites," were documented by the report - with cases including war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, hostage-taking and more.
Hamas's military wing, along with the four additional armed Palestinian groups, "committed numerous violations of the laws of war that amount to war crimes, including attacks targeting civilians and civilian objects; the willful killing of people in custody; cruel and other inhumane treatment; crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence; hostage-taking; mutilation and despoiling bodies; use of human shields; and pillage and looting," the report found.
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"Palestinian fighters fired directly at civilians, often at close range, as they tried to flee," according to the report, and "attackers hurled grenades, shot into shelters, and fired rocket-propelled grenades at homes. They set houses on fire, burning and choking people and forcing out others whom they shot or captured. They took dozens hostage and summarily killed others."
The attack was directed at civilians, and taking hostages was a central aim rather than "an afterthought, a plan gone awry, or isolated acts," said HRW.
HRW found evidence contradicting Hamas's claims that its forces were instructed to abide by international law and not to target civilians.
There is evidence of terrorists seeking out civilians and killing them across attack sites from the moment the attack began in survivor accounts and video, said HRW, stating that this indicated that "killing and hostage-taking of civilians was planned and highly coordinated."
The report also found that "further investigation is needed into other potential crimes against humanity," such as rape or "other sexual violence of comparable gravity," extermination, or persecution of people based on racial, national, ethnic, or religious grounds.
HRW called for further investigation, saying that these crimes would constitute crimes against humanity if they were part of the attack on civilian populations.
The rights group was "not able to gather verifiable information through interviews with survivors of or witnesses to rape during the assault on October 7," according to their report.
"HRW requested access to information on sexual and gender-based violence in the possession of the Israeli government, but this request was not granted," they added.
The report did, however, cite a report by the office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, which found that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the October 7 attacks in multiple locations across Gaza periphery, including rape and gang rape, in at least three locations.”
The report concluded that the "extent to which acts of sexual and gender-based violence were committed during the October 7 assault will likely never be fully known." Saying that this is because many victims may have been killed, stigma often prevents survivors from reporting, and Israeli responders did not collect forensic evidence from attack sites and bodies.
The report cited Agence France-Presse, which determined that 815 of the 1,195 people killed on October 7 were civilians. Some 251 civilians and security force members were taken hostage, and as of July 1, 116 remained in captivity, 42 of whom have been killed.
Ofakim, Sderot, at least 19 Kibbutzim, five towns, two music festivals, and a beach party were among locations attacked on the 7, said the report.
HRW used the headbands worn by insurgents and claims of responsibility posted on social media to identify the four Palestinian groups involved in the attack along with Hamas - Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, National Resistance Brigades, and Al-Quds Brigades.
Some 144 people, including 94 witnesses of the assault, were interviewed by HRW from October of 2023 to June 2024. Over 280 photographs and videos of the attack were also analyzed for the report.
The report also included a summary of Israel's response to the October 7 attack, saying that Israel's cutting off of essential services to Gaza and blocking "all but a trickle" of fuel and humanitarian aid amounts to collective punishment, which is a war crime.
This exacerbated "the impact of Israel’s more than 17-year illegal closure of Gaza and its crimes of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians," it said.
The report also touched on the aerial bombardment and ground incursion into Gaza that resulted from the October 7 attack, saying that "more than 37,900 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed between October 7 and July 1, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza."
The ministry is run by Hamas and has been criticized for failing to differentiate between civilians and combatants and for distorting casualty figures in its count.
The report also touched on the widespread destruction caused by the war in Gaza and added that the "vast majority of Gaza’s population [has been] displaced."
HRW called on "all parties to the armed conflict in Gaza and Israel" to fully abide by international humanitarian law and added that "The Palestinian armed groups in Gaza should immediately and unconditionally release civilians held hostage. They should take appropriate disciplinary measures against members responsible for war crimes and should surrender for prosecution anyone facing an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant."
Jerusalem-based research group NGO monitor called the report tokenism and political manipulation, saying that This publication adds nothing of substance - instead, it exploits the tragedies of the victims and hostages to score a few cheap points through blatantly false "balance" with gullible donors, board members, and supporters.”