Gang rape and mutilation: 300-page report documents atrocities of 7 October

A two-year investigation has found that sexual and gender-based violence perpetrated during the 7 October 2023 massacre by Hamas terrorists in Israel was “deliberately and systematically” widespread.

The 300-page document, ‘Silenced No More’ was conducted by independent Israeli women’s rights NGO, the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, and first reported today by The Daily Mail. Its findings are horrific.

Led by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a 2024 Israel Prize laureate and expert in human rights and international law, the Commission draws on extensive factual documentation, including original filmed survivor and witness testimonies, interviews, photographs, videos, official records, and other primary materials from the attack sites, including homes, roads, shelters, the Nova music festival, military bases, and during captivity in Gaza.

It found that the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists on the day and against hostages taken into Gaza, was deliberately designed not just to brutalise the victims but also to terrorise Israeli society as a whole by its severity.

The report details burning, mutilation, rape, restraining, forced insertion of objects into the genitalia, threats of forced marriages, shootings to the faces and genital area, killings and abuses in front of family members and executions. Dead bodies were sexually abused and desecrated.

Those who survived and witnessed the crimes suffer “severe and enduring physical and psychological injuries”.

Hamas and other terrorist crimes were “marked by extreme cruelty and profound human suffering, often inflicted in ways designed to amplify terror; women were not the only victims debased as a “deliberate tool of terror, humiliation, and control”. Men were also sexually abused and in at least one case gang-raped.

Victims were mutilated and body parts cut off, then “used to create depraved scenes gleefully concocted to traumatise those who discovered them”.

First responder Eran Masas told The Civil Commission: “The purpose was humiliation, not victory.”

The victims represented 52 different nationalities with 13 recurring patterns of sexual and gender-based violence repeated across multiple locations demonstrating, “that the crimes were not isolated acts of brutality but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath.

The investigation reports that terrorists weaponised the digital sharing of their violent acts, with armed groups recording and live-streaming “acts of abuse, humiliation, and killing”, then circulating the footage through social media platforms and victims’ own digital accounts.

Testimonies from released hostages reveal how “sexual assaults, sexual humiliation, and sexualised torture persisted during captivity in Gaza for
prolonged periods”, with many victims sexually assaulted or humiliated in front of their own family members. In one documented case, family members were coerced into participating in acts of sexual abuse against one another, with the aim of utterly destroying the family.

Based on the report, the Civil Commission concludes that the terrorist crimes constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law, establishing “a clear roadmap for the prosecution of the crimes committed on 7 October and during captivity”.

It calls for “robust international cooperation” to ensure “effective accountability for the sexual and gender-based crimes committed on 7 October and in captivity”, and further recommends that Israel adopt a “comprehensive gender strategy within its prosecutorial framework” and establish a specialised chamber or panel of judges dedicated to the prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes committed on 7 October and during captivity”.

• WARNING: EXTREME SEXUAL VIOLENCE features in the full report.