The Israeli army says a member of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has confessed to committing rape and violence against civilians during the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday published a video said to show the 28-year-old Palestinian suspect during questioning.
In the video, the suspect identifies himself as a member of PIJ's marine unit.
He was arrested at the beginning of March during an Israeli operation in the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis.
In the video, the prisoner says on October 7, he had crossed the security fence on the Israel-Gaza border armed with a pistol and two hand grenades.
He then entered a kibbutz near the border and went into a house where he found a frightened young woman.
After describing her appearance and clothing in great detail, he said that he had raped her. The woman and her mother were then abducted by other fighters into the Gaza Strip, the suspect said.
More than 100 hostages are still held in Gaza after they were abducted in the October 7 attacks led by Palestinian extremist organization Hamas. Hamas fighters and other militants killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, that day and kidnapped 250 others.
Israel responded to the attacks by launching massive airstrikes and a ground offensive against Hamas and its allies in the sealed-off coastal area.
More than 32,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed in the military operation so far.
On his way back to Gaza, the PIJ suspect recorded by the IDF said he encountered three civilians. He fired on one of them and threw a grenade towards another, he said.
The IDF considers the footage to be "further proof of the onslaught of murder and sexual violence by the terrorist organizations on October 7th."
Islamic Jihad is considered one of the most radical militant groups in the Middle East. Its members also repeatedly fire rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. However, the organization is considered less powerful than Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip.
According to a UN report, the militants who carried out the October 7 attacks are likely to have committed sexual violence.
On March 4, the United Nations published a paper that said there were "reasonable grounds to believe" that rapes and gang rapes had taken place in at least three locations during the attacks.
There was also convincing information that sexualized violence had been committed against kidnapped hostages and that this could continue while they are held in captivity in the Gaza Strip, the report said.
The paper also states there is evidence of sexualized violence against Palestinians in Israeli captivity.