Clarity on Hamas’s Terror Campaign and Sexual Violence

Hamas terrorists’ October 7 invasion of southern Israel included the wide-scale rape of Israeli women as a weapon of war, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was “beyond anything that I've seen.” However, it has largely been met with silence from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to numerous other global women’s rights groups. Meanwhile, Israeli officials believe about 18 women remain in Hamas custody. And United States officials have publicly said that Hamas is not releasing the remaining women because it does not want them to speak publicly about the sexual violence they have endured.Please join Senators Joni Ernst and Marsha Blackburn and Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Julia Letlow for an event at Hudson with Senior Fellow Rebeccah L. Heinrichs, moderated by former State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. The women will address Hamas’s use of sexual violence, the silence of global women’s rights groups, and the need for unequivocal moral and intellectual clarity in condemning rape as a weapon of war.Additional panelists will be announced as they are confirmed.