Sexual and gender-based violence against Israeli hostages during the Gaza war

While held captivity in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war hostage crisis, Israelis taken during the 7 October 2023 attacks allege sexual violence, including sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants. Testimonies of sexual violence were given by male and female released hostages. Investigations by the United Nations, Israeli authorities and human rights organizations state that some of the hostages were sexually abused.

Reports

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a cross border attack on Israel from Gaza, resulting in around 1,200 deaths and the abduction of more than 251 people taken to Gaza. During the raids and while in captivity sexual and gender-based violence reportedly took place, including sexual assault, rape, forced nudity, and sexualized torture. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.

Reports about sexual and gender-based violence against Israeli hostages emerged after the temporary truce and release of the first group of hostages in November 2023. Israeli doctors who treated the released hostages and an Israeli military official said men and women had been sexually assaulted while in captivity, and those who witnessed it suffered from PTSD. Testimonies of sexual violence by hostages, both victims and witnesses, were included in a June 2025 Dinah Project report, and a December 2025 Amnesty International report, which stated Hamas and other Palestinian armed factions committed war crimes against hostages including torture and sexual violence. In November 2024 the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for the attack's alleged mastermind Mohammed Deif stated there were reasonable grounds to believe some Israeli hostages were subjected to sexual and gender based violence.

Hostages testimonies

Witnesses

Aviva Sigal said she saw a woman whom captors had just assaulted when taking her to the restroom, and said that captors turned women and men into "puppets on a string".

Amit Soussana

Former hostage Amit Soussana who was abducted on October 7 from her home in Kfar Aza, revealed to The New York Times the details of the sexual assault she went through by her Hamas capturer. In the interview published on March 26, 2024 she told how around 24 October, her assailant, who called himself Muhammad, dragged her at gunpoint to a child's bedroom, where Soussana said that "he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him." A medical report stated that "Amit spoke immediately, fluently and in detail" about her sexual assault. Siegal Sadetzki, a professor at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine, recounted that Soussana first told her about the sexual assault within days of her release and her accounts have remained consistent.

Ilana Gritzewksy

In a March 2025 interview with The New York Times, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky said she had been sexually assaulted during her captivity. According to Gritzwesky, she was groped, and after passing out along the way, she woke up with her shirt lifted up and pants pulled down as seven gunmen stood over her. She did not know what happened while she was passed out but said telling them she was on her period likely saved her from worse.

Rom Braslavski

In a November 2025 interview, former hostage Rom Braslavski told CNN that he had been sexually abused and tortured during his time in captivity. According to Braslavski, he was stripped naked, and tied up to humiliate him and strip him of his dignity. He described his time in captivity as "hell". In December 2025 he was a guest of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and was interviewed about the horrors he experienced and saw since the October 7 attacks by Hamas. He described the sexual abuse he suffered. When asked about the sexual violence and were there several incidents, he replied "Yes" and stated: "This was sexual violence. They had one objective, to humiliate me.".

Alon Ohel

On an interview to N12, on 1 December 2025. Alon Ohel said he had been sexually abused during his time in captivity. He recalled an incident that during one the few showers he was allowed to take, a Hamas militant came in to wash him. The militant put shampoo on his hand and started touching Alon all over his body, even though Alon tried to stop it. In the interview, he says the Hamas militant tried to justify this by saying that he needed to wash thoroughly so he would not develop skin rashes.

Romi Gonen

In interviews published from late December through January 2026, Romi Gonen described being sexually abused while held captive in Gaza after being taken hostage on October 7, 2023, saying she faced repeated sexual violence, death threats, and constant fear that severely affected her mental health, without initially providing graphic detail. A January CNN report, drawing on Israel's Channel 12 program Uvda, revealed more details of her account, including assaults that began within days of her kidnapping, her fear of becoming a "sex slave," and abuse by multiple captors, including a man she said presented himself as a "nurse".