Omar Elsakhawy
Overview
Omar Elsakhawy [Mohammad Shanash] was the “coordinator” of a Penn student group that signed a statement supporting Hamas war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, carried out on October 7, 2023. Elsakhawy also attended a rally at Penn that expressed support for Hamas war crimes.Member of a Group Supporting Hamas War Crimes
On October 11, 2023, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) anti-Israel group Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine (PAO) authored a statement in support of Hamas titled: “Statement of Solidarity with Palestine.” Four other groups co-signed the statement, which praised [slide 2] Hamas as “the Palestinian resistance.” The statement described [slide 4] Hamas’s war crimes against Israeli civilians, such as mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, as “resistance efforts.”
The statement began [slide 2]: “We, the undersigned, write this statement in support of Palestinians who are fighting to liberate their lands from the Israeli Occupation.” The statement also said [slide 2] the groups “unequivocally condemn” Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hamas, asserted [slide 5] that Palestinians had the “right to resist” Israel “by any means necessary” and claimed [slide 4]: “Israel bears sole responsibility for the violence” since Hamas invaded Israel.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
As of November 10, 2023, over 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.
Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.
Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.
Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.
Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis between the ages of three and 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.
Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.
Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape.
Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.
Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.
The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.
The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Attending a Rally in Support of Hamas War Crimes
On October 18, 2023, Elsakhawy attended a rally at Penn in support of Hamas war crimes.On October 18, 2023, the student group Penn Against the Occupation (PAO) at Penn organized a rally titled: “VIGIL & WALKOUT FOR GAZA.”
Biographical Information
At the time of the October 2023 PAO statement, Elsakhawy was reportedly a “coordinator” of Fossil Free Penn (FFP) when the group signed the statement. He also held the position in September 2022.As of October 2023, Elslakhawy went by “Mohammad Shanash” on LinkedIn and had listed FFP as one of his “Activities and societies” at Penn. As of the same date, his LinkedIn profile said he was a “Pre-Medical Student” at Penn.
As of October 2023, Elsakhaway was listed as a member of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE) at Penn for the class of 2026.
As of the same date, Elsakhawy’s LinkedIn said he had been working as a research assistant at the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center (PAIR Center) housed in the Department of Medicine at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine since May 2023 and as an emergency medical technician (EMT) with the Penn Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT) since May 2023.
Also as of October 2023, Elsakhawy’s LinkedIn said he was studying health and societies at Penn, slated to graduate in May 2026.
Penn is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. However, as of October 2023, Elsakhawy’s LinkedIn said he was located in Orlando, Florida.
Social Media and Weblinks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elsakhawy_/ [Private]LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarelsakhawy/ [Deleted]
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Pennsylvania
- Organizations:
- PAO (SJP)
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Photos & Screenshots
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