New report reveals: systematic rape and sexual violence during Hamas’s October 7 attack

By Michal Peylan

• A new and most comprehensive report on the subject reveals systematic sexual abuse by Hamas on October 7 and in captivity.
• The report states that the sexual violence was part of a calculated Hamas strategy.
• The professional team spent about two years collecting and analyzing thousands of pieces of evidence from the scenes.
• The documentation includes testimonies of severe sexual abuse of minors and hostages in captivity.
• Evidence was found of deliberate mutilation of intimate organs on the victims’ bodies.
• Warning: This article contains disturbing content

A new report by the Civil Commission for the Investigation of October 7 Crimes, published yesterday (Tuesday) on CNN, reveals that Hamas and its allies raped, assaulted, and sexually tortured their victims during and after the terror attack. According to the report, the purpose of the systematic abuse was: “to maximize the pain and suffering” of the victims.

The report, published about two and a half years after the event, is the most comprehensive one conducted to date regarding the sexual and gender-based violence committed against women during the event. The report includes more than 10,000 photographs and video clips, 430 filmed testimonies, and firsthand testimonies from more than 10 survivors who experienced extreme sexual violence and sexual abuse during the October 7 attack, during their abduction, and while being held captive in Gaza.

Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder and chair of the Civil Commission and a human rights expert, told CNN: "The most important finding is the fact that the sexual violence during the brutal attack and against the hostages in captivity was part of a calculated Hamas strategy". In the report she added: "We built a truth that cannot be erased. We did everything in our power to restore a voice to those whose voices were silenced".

“The sexual violence was intended to torture and humiliate”

Among the people included in the report are Romi Gonen, Rom Braslavski, Arbel Yehoud, Amit Soussana, Ilana Gritzewsky, and others. In addition, beyond those listed above who spoke publicly about the difficult experience in captivity, additional victims confidentially shared with expert investigators and medical staff details of the abuse they endured.

In one particularly chilling example, the report details three separate rape cases at the Nova festival, quoting a survivor who hid near the scene: "I heard her rape, they moved her from place to place and she was probably injured. Judging by her screams - those were screams I had never heard in my life".

The survivor’s descriptions were confirmed by another survivor. In addition, her statements were verified when teams later arrived and saw the victims’ bodies with torn clothes, their legs spread apart, and their intimate areas mutilated. The report details at least six additional cases of direct testimony regarding rape and gang rape. Witnesses described that all the victims were shot to death after the rape.

Among the claims raised were also details previously unknown, such as a case involving two minors who were held captive by Hamas and described sexual abuse they endured in captivity and said they were forced by their captors to perform sexual acts on one another.

The team that investigated the event and submitted the new report devoted more than two years to the careful collection, review, and cataloging of evidence from the attack. According to them, hundreds of interviews and meetings were conducted with survivors, emergency responders, forensic investigators, and medical experts, and approximately 1,800 hours were devoted to analyzing more than 10,000 images and video clips from the attack, including hours of horrifying material recorded by the perpetrators themselves.

Details of the research conducted on the subject indicate that the recurring nature of the violence - including sexual torture, murders following sexual violence, forced nudity, and photographing and distributing images of sexual violence - indicates that it was a planned and inseparable part of the attack and its consequences, carried out against both women and men alike.

The report also details numerous bodies that were mutilated on October 7, when the attackers frequently targeted women’s faces and intimate areas. The investigators reviewed photographs of numerous bodies and interviewed forensic experts as well as people who worked on identifying the victims at the IDF’s Shura base, where most of the bodies were brought. They said that dozens were shot or burned in the chest and groin areas, mutilations that were frequently inflicted after death. The investigators believe this was a deliberate component of the attack.

"The severe sexual violence was intended to torture and humiliate. They mutilated the victims’ intimate organs, they burned their genital areas, and created pain and suffering that will be remembered for generations to come", said Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy. "The victims are a symbol of the entire nation; this is the collective effect, a collective trauma they sought to create. Collective suffering".

Recurring patterns of sexual violence

Elkayam-Levy added that every piece of evidence included in the report underwent meticulous cross-checking and factual verification. In addition, the authors decided not to rely on any information obtained through state investigations. The team behind the report consisted of about 25 experts and contributors. They also worked with a group of researchers who geographically located the photos and videos from the scene, identified the locations of the victims, and cross-referenced them with other evidence.

In a systematic analysis conducted by the commission, they identified 13 recurring patterns of sexual violence:

1. Rape, gang rape, and sexual assaults
2. Intentional torture including deliberate burning and amputation of organs
3. Deliberate shooting at the head, face, and genital organs
4. Murder and execution
5. Sexual abuse, desecration, and humiliation of bodies
6. Forced nudity and exposure
7. Handcuffing and binding
8. Humiliation and public display of women and children
9. Abduction of mothers and children
10. Sexual and gender-based violence in the presence of family members
11. Digital documentation and distribution
12. Threats involving coercion
13. Rape and sexual violence against young boys and men

Many critics of Israel denied and expressed doubts regarding the credibility of the severe sexual assaults carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Skeptics focused on the absence of firsthand testimonies from victims immediately after the attacks. However, forensic experts examined the bodies, photographs, and videos from the attack and succeeded in proving clear signs of sexual violence - and thus investigators were able to understand exactly what had happened.

"Anyone who has ever represented victims of sexual violence knows that questioning and denial arrive almost immediately", said Dr. Elkayam-Levy. "But what hurt the most was actually not the hesitation of the public, but that of the experts who said, 'Show me the evidence'. I do not remember ever in my 20 years of experience hearing a feminist researcher say, 'Show me the evidence', to a victim of sexual violence".