Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring one key issue currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World. This week, host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaks with legal expert Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy.

Almost immediately following Hamas’s murderous onslaught on southern Israel, humanitarian law expert Elkayam-Levy established and now heads The Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children.

On May 12, the commission released a massive report that documents and chronicles Hamas’s systemic use of rape and sexual violence against women -- and men -- on October 7, while taking hostages and during their captivities.

Elkayam-Levy visited The Times of Israel's Jerusalem studio for this wide-ranging conversation. Listener discretion is advised.

Since the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel, Elkayam-Levy and her team of forensics and legal experts, alongside professional archivists and others, have carefully gathered witness testimony and over 10,000 pieces of visual evidence that prove the terrorists' use of sex abuse as a tactical war crime.

We hear about 13 categories of abuse perpetrated on people from over 50 nationalities. We learn that the tactic of broadcasting the crimes via livestreams has made Hamas heroes in the eyes of some fundamentalists who are already importing the terror group's sadistic methods, as seen in Syrian attacks on Druze in July.

Elkayam-Levy discusses the impossible mission of providing a voice for the voiceless and creating a historical database that accurately portrays the scope of the horror. She has faced unfathomable blowback and is clear-eyed about how the commission's report will be received.

So this week, we ask Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, what matters now?

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee. 

IMAGE: Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy (Muki Schwartz) / On October 13, 2023, Israeli soldiers inspect the site of the Nova music festival where at least 340 Israeli festival-goers were killed during the attack by Hamas militants on Oct 7, near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

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