Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American technology executive, philanthropist, and writer. Sandberg served as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is also the founder of LeanIn.Org. In 2008, she was made COO at Facebook, becoming the company's second-highest-ranking official. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. As head of the company's advertising business, Sandberg was credited for making the company profitable. Prior to joining Facebook as its COO, Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google and was involved in its philanthropic arm Google.org. Before that, Sandberg served as research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank, and subsequently as his chief of staff when he was Bill Clinton's United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Linor Abargil is an Israeli attorney, actress, model and beauty queen who won the Miss World 1998, shortly after being raped. Since then, she has become a global advocate in the fight against sexual violence. She was crowned by her predecessor Miss World 1997, Diana Hayden.
Jeffrey A. Gettleman is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Since 2018, he has been the South Asia bureau chief of The New York Times based in New Delhi. From 2006 to July 2017, he was East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times.
Sima Sami Bahous is a Jordanian diplomat and women’s rights advocate, and has served as Executive Director of UN Women since 2021. She previously served as Jordan's Ambassador to the United Nations from 2016 to 2021. Earlier, she was Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League in Cairo, Egypt.
Briahna Joy Gray is an American political commentator, lawyer, and political consultant. After writing for The Intercept in 2018 she started her political career as the National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. She was the co-host of The Hill's web program Rising from September 2022 to June 7, 2024, when she was fired. She is the host of the Bad Faith podcast.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian nationalist militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The attack coincided with the Jewish religious holiday Simchat Torah. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups named the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, while in Israel they are referred to as Black Sabbath or the Simchat Torah Massacre, and internationally as the 7 October attacks. The attacks initiated the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.
On 7 October 2023, the Islamic Palestinian nationalist militant group Hamas initiated a sudden attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 individuals, mostly civilians, were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. Hamas also took 40 people hostage.
On 7 October 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel at the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, and elderly people. In addition to hostages with only Israeli citizenship, almost half of the hostages are foreign nationals or have multiple citizenships. Some hostages were Negev Bedouins. The precise ratio of soldiers and civilians among the captives is unknown. The captives are likely being held in different locations in the Gaza Strip.
Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre is a compilation by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit of raw footage from the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The film includes footage captured from body cameras worn by Hamas militants on 7 October, and contains scenes of extreme violence recorded during and after the incursion.
Women in the Israel–Hamas war refers to the experience of Israeli and Palestinian women as victims of violence, combatants, leadership partners, and as participants in informational campaigns during the Israel–Hamas war. The conflict has been marked by violence towards women, including reports of rape and sexual violence by Hamas militants. Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, there were testimonies and videos indicating that Hamas employed methods of severe torture, including violence and sexual violence against Israeli women and children. Close to 100 Israeli women were taken hostage and held in Gaza, leading to efforts by Israeli women and organizations to raise awareness and promote their release. The UN Secretary-General and UN Women condemned the gender-based violence against Israeli women during the attacks.
During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, dozens of Israeli women, girls, and men were reportedly subject to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants. The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.
Allegations have been made that the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel constituted a genocidal massacre against Israelis. In the course of the assault, Palestinian militants attacked communities, a music festival, and military bases in the region of southern Israel known as the Gaza Envelope. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,163 Israelis and foreigners, two thirds of whom were civilians.
On 7 October 2023, Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman, was abducted by Hamas during the Re'im music festival massacre, part of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Her abduction, a video of her in captivity in Gaza, and subsequent release on 30 November garnered international media attention, and she became a face of the hostage crisis during the Israel–Hamas war.
During the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, Israeli male and female soldiers, guards as well as medical staff have reportedly committed wartime sexual violence against Palestinian children, women and men including rape, gang-rape, sexualized torture and mutilation. In February, UN experts cited at least two cases of Palestinian women being raped by male Israeli soldiers. Palestinian boys and men have also been raped and subjected to torture, and in some cases, the torture has led to the victim's death.
Anat Schwartz is an Israeli filmmaker, television director, data analyst, and freelance writer. Her films and the films she worked on, comprising mostly short documentary and narrative films, have been screened at major festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival. She gained significant media attention outside of her film work in 2024, in the context of broader controversies around the media coverage of the Israel–Hamas war, as one of the authors of "Screams Without Words" – a New York Times article about sexual and gender-based violence in the 7 October attack on Israel – which was heavily criticized for the quality of its reporting, which further led to a social media controversy and dissent within the paper.
In December 2023, a New York Times investigation titled " 'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7" described rape and sexual violence during the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, referring to such violence as having been "weaponized" by Hamas.
Naama Levy is an Israeli soldier serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). On the morning of 7 October 2023, during the Hamas attack on Israel, she was abducted from the IDF surveillance base at Nahal Oz near the Gaza–Israel barrier.
Tal Heinrich is a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister Office of Israel. Before the October 7th Hamas attack, Tal Heinrich was working for Israel's Channel 14 and Trinity Broadcasting Network. Before that Heinrich was one of the main anchors on i24news. Heinrich often anchored Crossroads with David Shuster. Following that she served as lead anchor for the Investigative Journal. Tal Heinrich also was one of the key experts to testify at a key UN session organized by Sheryl Sandberg. Since the beginning of the conflict Tal Heinrich has appeared on many United States network news shows such as that of Erin Burnett. Tal is fluent in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
Death Shelters is a term used for the fortified shelters located at Re’im Junction and Alumim Junction, where dozens of young Israelis were killed and taken hostage while fleeing the Re'im music festival massacre on October 7, 2023.
Israeli public diplomacy in the Israel–Hamas war, also referred to as Hasbara in the Israel–Hamas war or Israeli propaganda in the Israel–Hamas war refers to the Israeli effort towards bringing more favor of global public opinion to Israel and its actions during the Israel–Hamas war.
