News - Middle East: Appearing on a prime-time Sky News show earlier this week, Israeli military reservist Shari Mendes again resorted to her favorite activity – peddling lies about the Palestinian resistance.

“It seems like there was a systematic genital mutilation of women,” Mendes told show host Yalda Hakim while discussing the events of October 7 when Hamas launched the unprecedented military operation dubbed ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm’ (Al-Aqsa Flood).
“The halls were lined to the ceiling with body bags, the smell was unimaginable. I can't tell you the shock and despair that struck all of us,” she added, repeating the claim made by Israeli officials.
The Israeli military reservist noted that women were “shot in the crotch and the genitals.”
Her remarks were in line with a report by the New York Times, which accused the Gaza-based Hamas resistance group of “weaponizing” rape on October 7, which the group dismissed flatly.
Hamas politburo member Basem Naim said the claims were “biased to what the Israeli propaganda says [in terms of] lies and slanders against the Palestinians and their resistance.”
A Mondoweiss report on December 1 also debunked a report by veteran CNN journalist Jake Tapper that claimed “rape crimes” against Israeli women on October 7.
“The most concerning aspect of the report is the fact that every single witness and “expert” in the CNN report proves to either be lacking in credibility or have ties to Israeli government officials and institutions,” the report stated.
Journalist Jonathan Cook in an article published on October 18 asserted that the allegations against Hamas were not backed by evidence and were being used to justify genocide in the besieged territory.
“However, unlike the lack of evidence that Hamas ordered rape as a weapon of war, we do have evidence – from the Israeli media – that an Israeli military leader encouraged Israeli soldiers to rape Palestinian women to “boost morale”,” he wrote, referring to Col. Eyal Karim, Israeli military’s rabbi who suggested last month that rape “was permissible” in times of war.