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Tali Biner speaks at an Association of Rape Crisis Centers conference (photo credit: EYAL GAZIEL)
Palestinian Authority/Gaza, November 26, 2024
‘I was not afraid to die, I was afraid to be raped’ – Nova survivor on Oct. 7 sex offenses
Original source
Tali Biner bore witness to the rape and sex offenses she heard taking place during the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel at a conference hosted by Israel's Association of Rape Crisis Centers on Tuesday.
Biner, an operating room nurse, hid in a caravan at the Nova festival for 7 hours on October 7, hearing the sounds of what she said was unmistakably rape.
"Rape has one sound," said Biner, explaining that there are those who question how she could be sure that rape and sex offenses were taking place given the fact that she could not see the attacks but only hear what was taking place.
"It is the sound of helplessness that turns into a loss of your own humanity."
Biner said that she heard shouts of women that "went on for a few minutes that felt like hours and ended in a spray [of bullets], "shouts that "split the heavens and cut the soul to pieces."
"I was not afraid to die; I was afraid to be raped. I was afraid I would have to provide proof and explanations about the fact that my soul is not here anymore," Biner said.
"For hours, I heard a man begging in yells that they would leave her alone," she said, talking about a couple she remembers being attacked on the 7th.
Biner explained that when she left the caravan she was hiding in, all of the things she had heard were given visual confirmation - "women with their legs spread, their underwear pushed aside, and the shirt ripped off their body."
Commenting on the status of the hostages
Commenting on the status of the hostages, Biner said that she "can't bring herself to think about what is happening to them when there is no time pressure, when there is no one coming to help."
Biner also shared about the impact she has experienced from being witness to the events of October 7.
"I dream a few times a week about a situation where I am raped or almost raped or harassed."
Since October 7, Biner has "removed sexuality from my lexicon. Something in my feminine and sexual light has gone out."
"As far as I am concerned, sexuality has turned into a sort of taking advantage, and that is the direct translation that was created for me," she said, adding that "sexuality has turned into a tool of war, of taking a stance, of seizing power, and I am afraid to be in that situation."
"I am afraid to be in a situation where I say no and am not listened to. I heard women yelling no, and they were not left alone. It could happen to me as well."
Biner called on authorities to complete a thorough and uncompromising examination of what happened on October 7 and to provide much better and less invasive support to survivors.
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