War crimes and crimes against humanity were committed against civilians by “Hamas-led armed groups” on October 7, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.
The report found that “Palestinian fighters committed summary killings, hostage-taking and other war crimes, and the crimes against humanity of murder and wrongful imprisonment.”
The report also said that pressure to release all “civilian hostages” should be applied by any government with influence over Palestinian armed groups.
A source familiar with HRW’s work told The Jerusalem Post in October that the NGO tried to send a delegation of the organization’s higher-ups down to the Gaza border communities in the weeks following the October 7 massacre in an attempt to disprove Israel’s allegations of sexual violence and other crimes perpetrated by Hamas terrorists that day.
The source also added that the organization aimed to disprove claims of child slaughter on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in addition to many other reports coming out of Israel as more information came out about the events of the day.
NGO watchdog organization calls out double standard by Human Rights Watch
Professor Gerald Steinberg, founder and President of NGO Monitor, responded to the July 17 statement released by HRW. “This is another blatant example of HRW’s token ‘balance’ and cynical political manipulation. Nine months after the brutal October 7 atrocities were shown live on social media, no one needs a ‘report’ from an organization devoted to demonizing Israel using the blood libels of genocide, apartheid, starvation, and war crimes,” Steinberg stated.
He continued with several HRW points throughout the years that NGO Monitor has noted on the organization’s exploitation throughout the years, claiming that the organization is currently exploiting the October 7 tragedies and treatment of hostages “to score cheap points.”
“As NGO Monitor has documented, for over 25 years, HRW’s systematic PR strategy uses one-off tokens like this to market the deceptions of ‘neutrality’ and ‘expertise’ to gullible donors, board members, and journalists.”
He referenced Danielle Haas, a senior editor at HRW for 13 years before recently publicly resigning. “[Haas] referred to the NGO’s deeply embedded antisemitism, including HRW’s first response after October 7th, invoking “the ‘context’ of ‘apartheid’ and ‘occupation’ before blood was even dry on bedroom walls… This was the fruition of years of politicization… that has frequently violated basic editorial standards related to rigor, balance, and collegiality when it comes to Israel.” No one should be fooled by this fake report or give it any credence. ”
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