A comprehensive report detailing the harrowing sexual violence committed by Hamas during its October 7 massacre has been submitted to the United Nations by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. This document sheds light on the terror group’s strategic use of sexual atrocities, including sadistic humiliation, genital mutilation, and gang rape, as part of its operations. The report, described by the association’s CEO, Orit Sulitzeanu, as leaving “no room for denial or disregard,” underscores the dual strategy of Hamas: kidnapping citizens and committing heinous sexual crimes.
Victims and first responders provided testimonies that revealed corpses bearing signs of sexual assault across all massacre locations, including the Nova festival, various villages, and military bases. Hostages taken during the attack were also subjected to sexual violence while in captivity. The report does not specify the number of assaults due to the killing of most victims, which obscures the full extent of these atrocities.
Eyewitness accounts from the Nova festival include a woman with a burned face and torn dress appearing in a viral video, confirmed to have been raped according to police investigators. Other survivors reported witnessing women being gang raped, beaten, and then murdered. Descriptions of the aftermath painted a chilling picture of an “apocalypse of bodies,” with numerous victims found partially or fully unclothed, with severe injuries and mutilations.
Specific incidents recounted in the report include a survivor named Sapir witnessing multiple cases of rape and mutilation, and another survivor, Rami Davidian, describing women’s bodies tied to trees with iron rods inserted into their sexual organs. Further testimonies detailed the widespread and brutal nature of the sexual violence, with men’s bodies also found with mutilated genitals, highlighting the sadistic intent behind these acts.
The report also points to sexual violence within several villages, where homes were invaded, and family members were forced to witness the assaults. Emergency teams and volunteers provided accounts of finding bodies of women and girls stripped of underwear, with signs of semen and other indicators of rape.
This official documentation of Hamas’s sexual violence during the October 7 massacre emphasizes the terror group’s deliberate use of sexual assault as a weapon of war. The association calls for acknowledgment and action against these crimes, stressing that silence on such matters would be a “historical stain” on those who choose to ignore the suffering inflicted by Hamas.