(i24) A 16-year-old teenage girl was reportedly raped by up to 30 men in Israel’s southernmost coastal city of Eilat, while staying in the city’s Red Sea Hotel.
The incident was thought to have taken place approximately one week ago, with the first suspects arrested last Friday following the filing of a police complaint.
The details of the case are harrowing, with reports that the men simply lined up outside her hotel room door waiting for their “turn.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was vociferous in his revulsion at the alleged perpetrators.
“This is shocking, there is no other word. This is not only a crime against the girl, this is a crime against humanity itself that is worthy of all condemnation and those responsible must be brought to justice,” Netanyahu tweeted.
His political rival, Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz was similarly outraged and tweeted: “From yesterday afternoon, I’ve been trying, and failing, to understand: What is a man who is standing on a crowded line with dozens of others, on the way to a room where a young, disoriented girl is lying down, trying to prove?”
A 27-year-old man was one of the first suspects arrested Wednesday night after a string of text messages were found between him and the victim – in which he also claimed there was footage of the incident. In Ashkelon Magistrate Court, the defendant’s attorney said that his client “feared” the other men and also tried to blame the victim for calling each of the men into the room.
“Nine out of 10 rape cases in Israel are closed by prosecutors without charge, according to an annual survey released at the end of last year, which also found a significant increase in reports of sexual assault and harassment to the authorities,” according to a report in The Times of Israel.
