Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

A newly released report based on two years of research details in disturbing depth how Hamas deliberately deployed stomach-churning sexual violence as a weapon of war against both those attacked in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the hostages kidnapped by the terrorists and held captive in Gaza.

This week, the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, an Israeli nonprofit, published “Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity,” a study led by the organization’s founder and chair, Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a visiting professor at Herzliya’s Reichman University and a 2024 Israel Prize laureate with expertise in human rights and international law.

“For two years, we have listened to survivors, examined the evidence, and confronted material that is often beyond comprehension. This report establishes that sexual violence was not incidental — it was systematic, deliberate, and embedded in the attack itself,” Elkayam-Levy stated. “Documenting these crimes is essential to give voice to victims and ensure their stories are not erased.”

Analysts drew on substantial evidence, including more than 10,000 photographs and video segments of the attack which they reviewed for “more than 1,800 cumulative hours.” The commission also conducted over 430 interviews with survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, experts, and family members. They found that victims represented 52 nationalities, which, according to the report, underscored “the international scope of the crimes and their impact.”

The report named 13 “patterns of operation” which demonstrated that Hamas had intentionally selected sexual violence as a terror tactic. Some of these atrocities included rape, gang rape, sexual torture, intentional burning, deliberately shooting in the face or genitals, postmortem sexual abuse, executions during sexual violence, handcuffing, forced nudity, public parading of women, abduction of mothers with their children, sexual violence inflicted in the presence of family members, spreading sexual violence videos on social media, and threats of forced marriage.

The commission also heard accounts of Hamas fighters choosing to commit necrophilia.

Raz Cohen, a survivor from the attack on the Nova Music Festival, said he witnessed that “the men pulled a woman from the vehicle … forcibly removed her clothing, and raped her … They repeatedly stabbed her, killing her … they continued to rape her after her death.”

The commission described finding “kinocidal sexual and gender-based acts,” which included a case “in which family members were coerced into performing sexual acts on one another.”

According to the report, “other documented cases include, inter alia, family members being sexually assaulted or humiliated in each other’s presence. The weaponization of familial bonds maximized the pain and suffering of victims and terrorized their families. This pattern was particularly evident during Hamas captivity.”

The final pattern noted was “rape and other forms of sexual violence against boys and men.”

The report described how a male survivor “testified that he was subjected to a violent gang rape and torture by multiple perpetrators at the Nova Music Festival site, and that he heard others being sexually abused. He underwent a polygraph examination that confirmed his testimony. The commission also held several meetings with his attorney and was provided with medical records documenting his condition, as well as a detailed account of the events.”

According to the unnamed man, “there were several of them, and they genuinely enjoyed it. They laughed, they were really pleased, as if I was their sex doll. It felt like all boundaries were broken … There were no boundaries.”

“I was completely naked,” he continued. “They did whatever they wanted to me. You feel dirty all the time. Today, I shower a thousand times a day, and I still feel disgust and filth. I never returned to myself physically.”

The male survivor described the impact of the gang rape and torture.

“Since then, every time I go out, I have this fear that things will fall on me,” he said. “I am afraid people will attack me; I am afraid that suddenly I will be naked in the street. I constantly check whether I locked the door and don’t remember if I did. I live with very severe anxiety.”

The survivor continued to detail the struggle to live, saying, “I have nights without sleep. I can fall asleep and wake up from nightmares. I feel like a 90-year-old person; everything is difficult. I shower all the time, especially at night, because I wake up drenched in sweat. I feel that in my sleep I begin to confront and process everything I suppressed. I have moments when I freeze, and then I return to the situation I went through.”

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the commission’s work.

“History has shown us that sexual violence in war is too often hidden, minimized, or erased from the historical record. This report is an act of witness against that erasure,” Clinton said. “It gives voice to victims and survivors, documents the systematic nature of these crimes, and deepens our understanding of the profound harm they inflict — not only on individuals, but on families, communities, and future generations. Its contribution to justice and historical memory will endure.”

Elkayam-Levy concluded her introduction to the report with a warning.

“We cannot prevent future atrocities if we ignore, deny, question, or look away from them,” she said. “Nor can we begin to prevent what we do not know — or choose not to fully understand. May the truth of what was done endure in the record of humanity, compel law and conscience, and sustain the long and necessary effort to seek justice, confront such violence, and prevent its recurrence.”