TEL AVIV: Israel's First Lady, Michal Herzog Monday met at the President's Residence in Jerusalem with Pramila Patten, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, who was visiting Israel with a team of senior UN legal and medical experts on a fact-finding mission investigating the wide-spread and systematic sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Ahead of the meeting, the First Lady and President Isaac Herzog held a private meeting with Under-Secretary Patten.
President Herzog said: "The scenes we saw on 7th October continue to reverberate. They must be told and must be investigated, and most of all, the victims must be cared for." First Lady Herzog said: "As a woman to a woman, I want to thank you very much for coming to Israel with an open heart and open mind to listen and to see, and to help the survivors."
Under-Secretary Patten said: "I'm here to express my solidarity with the Government of Israel, the people of Israel, the survivors, the families of victims, and the families of hostages." She added, "Sexual Violence used as a tactic of terrorism, as a tactic of war, is intended to destabilize, to instil fear, to humiliate, to dehumanize not only the victims, but also the families, the societies, the nation, or the perceived enemy."
The First Lady and Under-Secretary then went on to meet a range of leading Israeli civil society, legal, and medical experts in the field of women's rights. The meeting was also attended by Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.