Friday Briefing: A campaign of sexual violence

A Times investigation into Oct. 7.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story December 29, 2023 By Natasha Frost Good morning. We're covering a Times investigation into Hamas's campaign of sexual violence on Oct. 7. Plus: Russia is making progress in Ukraine. The family of Gal Abdush, who was killed by Hamas. The photograph on the wall shows Gal and her husband, Nagi. Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times 'Screams without words' A two-month investigation by The Times, including interviews with more than 150 people, uncovered painful new details about the attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, established a pattern of gender-based sexual violence and identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appeared to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated. Israeli officials say that, in every place where Hamas terrorists struck — a rave, military bases along the border and kibbutzim — they brutalized women. Witnesses described instances of rape and murder in graphic detail. And soldiers and volunteer medics recalled finding more than 30 defiled bodies of women and girls. Many of the accounts are difficult to hear, and the visual evidence is disturbing to see. Hamas has denied Israel's accusations of sexual violence. Israeli activists have been outraged that the U.N. Secretary General, António Guterres, and the agency U.N. Women did not acknowledge the many accusations until weeks after the attacks. Investigation: Top police investigators in Israel have gathered evidence where possible, but they have not put a number on how many women were raped, saying that most are dead — and quickly buried, according to Jewish religious custom — and that they will never know. No survivors have spoken publicly. Witness account: Raz Cohen, a security consultant, saw a young woman, naked and screaming, being dragged by five armed men. He described how she was raped and then killed. "I still remember her voice, screams without words." In other news: In a rare admission of fault, the Israeli military acknowledged that it had carried out two airstrikes in central Gaza on Dec. 24, which health officials said killed dozens of civilians. A report that Israel's Supreme Court might strike down part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul has raised the specter of renewed discord in the country. The U.S. imposed financial sanctions to try to stanch the flow of Iranian funds to the Houthi militia in Yemen, which has been sowing chaos in the Red Sea. Ukrainian soldiers riding in a tank near the village of Robotyne, in the Zaporizhzhia region, in August. Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters Russia retakes land from Ukraine Russia is making progress around the southern village of Robotyne, recapturing land that Ukrainian troops took at the peak of their summer counteroffensive in the south. With their counteroffensive stalled, Ukrainian troops are now on the back foot in many places, and Kyiv is increasingly worried that its military will not have the resources to keep up the fight. Scandal: A celebrity party in Moscow with the dress code "almost naked" has resulted in tearful apologies, revoked sponsorships, canceled performances and, for one rapper, a two-week jail sentence. Soldiers in Burkina Faso standing at attention. Martin Demay/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A crackdown on critics in Burkina Faso The military junta in Burkina Faso, a West African nation struggling to defeat extremist groups, has been forcibly conscripting those who have criticized the leadership for its failure to defeat the insurgents, and for abuses against the populations it is meant to protect. Violence has surged under the military government, according to diplomats, aid workers and analysts. Burkina Faso has become a focus of the crisis in the Sahel region, an enormous swath of land south of the Sahara that has been shaken by uprisings and coups. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Around the World Jon Super/Associated Press A powerful storm has left thousands of homes in Wales and England without power, delivering heavy rain and disrupting train journeys. More than 40 people were killed in Liberia in the explosion of a gas tanker after they rushed to scoop up fuel from the overturned vehicle. Lee Sun-kyun, the "Parasite" actor found dead this week, is just the latest celebrity to become entangled in South Korea's crackdown on drugs. Maine will keep Donald Trump off its Republican primary ballot, a week after Colorado's top court disqualified the former president from appearing on the ballot there. 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ARTS AND IDEAS A warning to our imaginations The explosive growth of A.I. technologies, including text-to-image generators, is not a threat to our species' culture, Jason Farago, a critic for The Times, writes. Instead, it is a warning: We cannot let our imaginations shrink to machine size, nor can we allow the worlds of art and entertainment to further resign themselves to recommendation engines and ratings structures. "To make something count," Jason writes, "you are going to have to do more than just rearrange precedent images and words, like any old robot. You are going to have to put your back into it, your back and maybe also your soul." Read his column. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS Craig Lee for The New York Times Cook: Send off the year over a classic tiramisù. Travel: Spend 36 hours in Hong Kong. Resolve: Try our tips to eat better in 2024. Listen: Check out these five new classical albums. Manage: How much anxiety is too much? Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. Have a fabulous weekend, and I'll see you in 2024. — Natasha You can reach Natasha and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Europe Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Europe Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018