According to this recent CNN video Hamas terrorists engaged in sexual assault and mutilation of their victims, among them 13-14 year old girls. Among the 240 people kidnapped, there are at least 33 children. But was this part of the plan, were they given instructions to do so? And if yes, for what purpose?
And if no, were those terrorists condemned by their organization? Were they acting against or in accordance to the values of their covenant and the line of the Hamas leaders?
Hamas denial
Hamas has repeatedly denied that they have committed any sexual violence or violence against civilians on October 7. E.g., according to Egyptian Mada Masr:
Although Israel’s social security agency has identified 1,139 dead on October 7, including 695 civilians, Hamas stressed its adherence to avoiding the targeting of civilians on that day in its document, especially women, children and the elderly, as part of a religious and moral commitment, and despite lacking precision weaponry. It pointed out that any such incidents were “unintentional, perhaps due to the full and rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system during Operation al-Aqsa Flood, as well as the ensuing chaos due to extensive breaches in the barrier and separation system between the Gaza Strip and [Hamas’] operational areas.”
Specifically in regard to the rape allegations:
The movement vehemently denied allegations of Palestinian resistance fighters sexually assaulting Israeli women, stating that these claims have been proven false. They referred to a paper published by Mondoweiss on December 1, 2023, which thoroughly investigated and debunked all rape allegations.
Evidence
Although multiple the pro-Hamas media deny these allegations - like the above cited Mondoweiss - there is growing consensus in the west that the sexual assaults did take place on a scale that may constitute a crime against humanity:
Guardian (Jan 18 2024): Evidence points to systematic use of rape and sexual violence by Hamas in 7 October attacks
On Monday, UN-appointed independent experts said that “given the number of victims and the extensive premeditation and planning of the attacks”, mounting evidence of rapes and genital mutilation pointed to possible crimes against humanity.
BBC (Dec 5, 2023): Israel Gaza: Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October, BBC hears
The civil commission headed by Dr Elkayam-Levy, to collect testimony on sexual crimes, is calling for international recognition that what happened on 7 October was systematic abuse, constituting Crimes Against Humanity.
Reuters (Jan 8, 2024): UN experts demand accountability for sexual torture during Hamas attacks:
GENEVA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.N. experts on Monday demanded accountability for sexual violence against Israeli civilians during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, saying that mounting evidence of rapes and genital mutilation point to possible crimes against humanity.
"Credible circumstantial information, which may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including genital mutilation, sexualized torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, was also gathered," read the 24-page U.N. report.
"The mission team found clear and convincing information that some hostages taken to Gaza have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing," the U.N. report said.
Obviously, anything said will be speculation until we get direct evidence of Hamas' plans, but there are a few general points that can be made:
In short, I expect that the people who organized this assault on Israel had a clear goal and general plan of attack, but didn't much guide or constrain the soldiers on the ground.
Hamas represents itself as highly Islamic, hence I assume Islamic values should be default for them. And, very unfortunately (and to my surprise), Islam permits rape of civilian women by soldiers of the enemy side during the war. See this question on Sceptics. Looks like the interpretation goes through that Islam permits slavery, and civilian woman on the enemy side formally becomes a slave of the trooper.
From this source,
"ففي بثّ تلفزيوني في عام 2014 لحلقة من برنامجها "فقه النساء"، زعمت أنّ للمسلمين حق التمتع بأرقاء جنس أو "ملك اليمين" عندما ينتصر المسلمون على
That translates:
In a 2014 television broadcast of an episode of her program “Fiqh al-Nisa,” she ("she" refers to Dr. Suad Saleh, the former dean of the College of Islamic Studies for Women at Al-Azhar University) claimed that Muslims have the right to enjoy sex slaves or “the king of the right” when Muslims triumph over non-Muslims.
Hence there is no reason why this policy should be unacceptable for them. It really puts a lot of fear and humiliates the enemy if these are the goals to achieve.
This answer is the opposite one to that I have previously posted and now myself deleted.
TLDR: Probably neither, but they certainly don't strongly oppose it.
It would be very difficult to determine if Hamas terrorists participating in the 2023-10-7 raid were given specific instructions to engage in sexual assault, mutilation and similar, especially since these could have been "wink wink, nudge nudge" instructions, but doing so would not be necessary.
It's a well known and eminently foreseeable part of human nature that combatants get angry and emotional and want to take revenge against individual members of the enemy society (military or civilian) of the enemy for deaths and suffering they've seen inflicted by the enemy. This is not anything to do with ideology or beliefs; all humans get angry especially when they see perceived injustices against their compatriots. This is why professional militaries concerned about human rights not only have strict rules against such behaviour, but make at least some effort to discover such behaviour and punish it.
We've seen this time and time again in situations where soldiers had much less investment in the conflict and its result, such as American soldiers in Vietnam or many different western soldiers in Afghanistan. One would expect this frustration to arise to an even greater degree in combatant groups such as Hamas, where they feel themselves (with significant justification) to be harshly oppressed by Israel and Israelis.
Thus, if Hamas leadership didn't give express orders not to commit such atrocities, and implement some sort of discipline to enforce this, that's clearly negligent, and nearly as bad as giving orders to engage in such behaviour.
I have seen no evidence that Hamas condemned any of their combatants who engaged in such activities.
That said, this does not necessarily make such actions part of Hamas' ideology, except perhaps to the degree that they don't care much about violations of the human rights of Israeli civilians (or soldiers, for that matter),
