Israeli researchers say Hamas sexual violence on Oct. 7 was systematic, widespread

A two-year Israeli investigation says sexual violence by Hamas and allied militants was not isolated but deliberate, widespread and meant to terrorize Israeli society. The 300-page report, Silenced No More, from the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, is built on 430 formal and informal interviews, testimonies and meetings with survivors, witnesses, former hostages, experts and family members. The commission described it as the most comprehensive investigation yet into sexual atrocities committed on Oct. 7 and during captivity.

The report identifies 13 types of sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture, mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, postmortem sexual abuse and assaults carried out in front of family members. It says Hamas and other militants recorded images and videos of the violence, shared them online and sent some directly to victims’ families, using the material to intimidate, humiliate and terrorize.

The findings add to a record that has been built slowly and under intense dispute. In March 2024, United Nations investigators said there were reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence occurred in multiple locations on Oct. 7, including rape and gang rape in at least three places in southern Israel. Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, said her team found “clear and convincing information” that hostages were subjected to rape and sexualized torture, and warned the abuse may still have been occurring against those held in Gaza. The U.N. mission examined more than 5,000 photographs, 50 hours of video footage and 34 confidential interviews.

The new Israeli report lands against the backdrop of the Hamas-led attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. It also follows the July 2025 Dinah Project report, which described Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war and proposed a legal framework for prosecutions. Among the survivor accounts that have shaped the record is that of former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, who said she was sexually assaulted after being abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz and released after 55 days in the November 2023 ceasefire deal.

Hamas has denied the allegations, but the documentary trail has widened. What began as scattered testimony has become a sustained effort to establish what happened in southern Israel, how the violence was used, and how international law should treat it.