Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the October 7 Attacks

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, joined by other armed groups and additional attackers, breached the Gaza perimeter and attacked civilian communities, music festivals, roads, and military targets in southern Israel.[1] The United Nations mission reported approximately 1,200 fatalities, predominantly among civilians, and 253 people taken hostage, including some who were already dead.[1]

The scale of the killings, the number and dispersal of crime scenes, destructive burning of bodies, and the priority given to rescue, identification, and burial complicated the collection of forensic evidence concerning sexual violence.[1] Documentation subsequently proceeded through Israeli authorities, civil-society organizations, and international bodies, drawing on early accounts, released-hostage testimony, visual material, and forensic information.[1][3]

The Nova music festival and its surroundings, Road 232, and Kibbutz Re’im were the three locations where the March 2024 United Nations mission found reasonable grounds to believe that rape, including gang rape, occurred during the October 7 attacks.[1] Its broader assessment concerned conflict-related sexual violence at multiple locations across the Gaza periphery, drawing on witness accounts, photographs, footage, and other available information.[1] The findings included assaults associated with killings as well as sexual violence experienced by people abducted and held hostage.[1]

At the Nova festival and in surrounding areas, the mission found reasonable grounds to believe that multiple incidents of rape, including gang rape, took place.[1] It received credible information that victims in some incidents were raped and then killed, as well as accounts of at least two incidents involving the rape of women’s corpses.[4] Accounts also described murdered people, mostly women, found naked or partly naked, sometimes with their hands bound behind their backs or their bodies tied to trees or poles.[1] Some of the bodies described in these accounts had gunshot wounds.[4]

Along Road 232, corroborating witness accounts described the rape of two women.[1] The mission also received other reports of rape, including gang rape, on or around the road.[4] Its examination included information about bodies with genital injuries and bodies found naked or partly naked, bound, or attached to structures.[4] At Kibbutz Re’im, witness testimony and digital material corroborated the rape of a woman outside a bomb shelter.[1]

Across several locations, the mission documented a recurring pattern involving bodies, mostly of women, found fully or partly naked from the waist down, sometimes with their hands tied and with multiple gunshot wounds, often to the head.[1] In its review of photographs and video that could not be linked to a particular attack location, it identified at least 20 bodies with intimate body parts exposed and at least ten with indications of bound wrists or tied legs.[4] These observations formed part of the circumstantial material considered alongside witness accounts and other evidence.[4]

At Kibbutz Kfar Aza, first responders described finding women’s bodies naked, with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to the head.[4] The mission identified the recurring combination of undressing, restraint, and shooting as potentially indicative of sexual violence, sexualized torture, or sexualized cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.[4] Seven female soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz military base to Gaza.[1]

A later international inquiry concluded on reasonable grounds that sexual violence occurred at the Nova festival, Road 232, the Nahal Oz military outpost, and the kibbutzim of Re’im, Nir Oz, and Kfar Aza.[5] Its assessment considered combinations of indicators rather than exposure of a body alone, examining undressing or exposed genitals, restraints, body position, isolation, and signs of force.[5] Its account also described gender-based violence during execution or abduction, the treatment of women’s bodies as “victory trophies,” and sexualized desecration of corpses, including undressing.[5]

The preliminary examination published by Israeli rape crisis centers in February 2024 covered violence at the festival, in homes, at military bases, and during captivity.[6] Accounts assembled in that work described sexual crimes against women, girls, and men, including rape under threat of weapons, assaults on wounded people, gang rape, and attacks carried out in front of others.[6] They also described mutilation during or after assaults and sexual assaults against hostages.[6]

Violence in captivity extended the subject beyond the sites attacked on October 7.[1] Based on first-hand accounts from released hostages, the March 2024 mission found “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had experienced conflict-related sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, and sexualized cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.[1] It also found reasonable grounds to believe that such violence might still have been occurring against hostages who remained captive when the report was issued.[1] The reproduced mission report describes affected hostages as including women and children and does not publish identifying details of survivors.[7]

Amit Soussana, who was abducted from her home in Kfar Aza on October 7, publicly described being sexually assaulted during captivity.[8] Her account described a captor threatening her with a gun, beating her, and forcing her to perform a sexual act.[8] The assault occurred approximately two to three weeks after her abduction, and she was released on November 30, 2023, after 55 days in captivity.[8][9] Her account was among the first public testimonies by a released hostage about sexual violence experienced while held captive.[8]

Israeli police and the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes against Women and Children continued collecting evidence and testimony through the end of 2023.[3] The material described in the subsequent American human-rights assessment included evidence published by Israeli authorities and civil-society organizations, survivor testimony, and videos posted by Hamas.[3] It also included eyewitness accounts of rape, mutilation, and sexual assaults, some followed by killing, together with observations by medical and search-and-rescue professionals.[3]

A two-month newspaper investigation published on December 28, 2023 used video, photographs, mobile-phone GPS data, and interviews with more than 150 people.[10] Those interviewed included witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers, and rape counselors.[10] The investigation identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls appeared to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated.[10] Its descriptions included photographs reportedly showing nails driven into a woman’s thighs and groin and a military-supplied video that appeared to show two dead female soldiers with gunshot wounds to their vaginas.[10]

The February 2024 report “Silent Cry” described its work as a preliminary examination of public and classified information, testimony, interviews, and confidential material available at that time.[6] It catalogued and analyzed information from official sources, local and international press, first responders, professionals, and confidential inquiries, while excluding social-media information and unverified sources.[6] Some confidential accounts were not disclosed, and the report anticipated that additional survivors might choose to speak in later years.[6]

Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, led a mission to Israel from January 29 to February 14, 2024, at the Israeli government’s invitation.[1] Its remit was to gather and assess information about conflict-related sexual violence during the attacks and in connection with hostage-taking.[1] The nine-person technical team included specialists in interviewing survivors and witnesses, a forensic pathologist, and a digital and open-source information analyst.[4]

The team held 33 meetings with Israeli institutions and interviewed 34 people, including survivors and witnesses of the attacks, released hostages, first responders, health professionals, and service providers.[4] Its work included visits to forensic and morgue facilities and locations attacked on October 7.[4] The locations visited included the Nova festival site, Road 232, Kibbutz Be’eri, and the Nahal Oz military base, while information was also gathered about places the team could not visit.[7] The mission reviewed more than 5,000 photographs and around 50 hours of footage.[1]

The mission report, issued on March 4, 2024, applied a “reasonable grounds to believe” standard to its assessment of the attacks.[7][9] Its methodology included evaluating witness credibility, checking sources and methods, cross-referencing information, and reviewing available materials.[7] For some hostage-related findings, it used the stronger formulation “clear and convincing information.”[1] The mission was not a criminal investigation and called for comprehensive investigation by competent bodies to establish the overall magnitude, scope, and attribution of violations.[1]

Despite efforts to arrange interviews, the team did not interview a survivor or victim of sexual violence committed during the October 7 attacks themselves.[1] It identified trauma, displacement, concerns about privacy and safety, reluctance to come forward, and mistrust of institutions as factors affecting access to first-hand testimony.[4][7] Its interviews with released hostages nevertheless supplied first-hand accounts of sexual violence in captivity.[1] Patten called for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages and for their protection from sexual violence.[11]

Forensic assessment faced a separate set of obstacles: limited crime-scene processing, dispersed and sometimes burned bodies, loss of evidence during recovery and burial, and inaccurate interpretations by some untrained responders.[4] Relevant material was incomplete, scattered, and not comprehensively organized.[7] The short mission period, limited access to first-hand testimony, and scale of the attacks also constrained the work.[1] The team stated that the true scale might take months or years to emerge and might never be fully known.[1]

A separate international commission’s detailed findings paper examined digital evidence that it collected and preserved, using combinations of visual and contextual indicators to assess sexual violence.[5] Its broader documentation included interviews with victims and witnesses, conducted remotely and in person, verified open-source material, satellite imagery, and forensic medical reports.[5] Like the earlier mission, it had not met survivors of sexual violence from October 7 and faced substantial difficulties accessing witnesses, crime scenes, and forensic evidence.[5]

Documentation continued in 2025 through an assessment that compiled previously published testimony, open-source intelligence, reports, visual material, and other available information.[12] The underlying material included testimony from one survivor of rape at the Nova festival, 15 released hostages, 17 witnesses or people who heard attacks, and 27 rescue workers.[12] The project compiled and assessed those accounts rather than collecting direct testimony itself.[12] Its head, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, described the evidence as grouped into categories according to evidentiary value.[13]

Halperin-Kaddari described at least 17 people who witnessed sexual violence in real time through sight or sound and reported at least 15 separate cases.[13] Some accounts concerned gang rape, mutilation, or executions after assaults.[13] Those figures represented the project’s reported witnesses and cases, not a count of every victim or incident.[13] The work addressed six locations—the Nova festival, Road 232, Nahal Oz, Re’im, Nir Oz, and Kfar Aza—and assaults against hostages in captivity.[12]

A further civilian investigation reported in 2026 produced “Silenced No More” after more than two years of work.[2][14] Its published summary described more than 430 interviews, testimonies, and meetings, together with review of more than 10,000 photographs and video segments and over 1,800 cumulative hours of visual analysis.[2] The investigation drew on survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, experts, and family members, as well as official records, site visits, and expert consultations.[2] Material from public sources, interviews, and forensic review was organized in a secure digital archive.[14]

The later investigators also described the consequences of victims having been killed and of bodies having been burned or destroyed.[14] Their evidence base therefore combined eyewitness accounts, photographs, videos, forensic assessments, and testimony from some released hostages.[14] They anticipated that additional information might emerge if survivors and rescue workers later chose to speak.[14] Earlier project testimony similarly described the difficulty of linking a specific perpetrator to a specific victim and the loss of opportunities to examine bodies after burial.[13]

The distinction between violence at the attack sites and violence during hostage captivity became a central feature of the documentation.[1] The March 2024 mission used “reasonable grounds to believe” for its principal findings about the attacks and “clear and convincing information” for sexual violence experienced by some hostages.[1] Its evidentiary approach combined witness credibility assessments, cross-referencing, and examination of available visual material.[7] The findings established an international documentary record addressing both the attacks and their continuation through hostage abuse.[1]

Successive studies organized the material in different ways: by attack location, by the relationship between assault and killing, by captivity experiences, and by recurring categories of sexual or gender-based violence.[1][2] The preliminary rape crisis centers’ examination covered the festival, homes, military bases, and captivity, while the later project assembled previously published accounts and graded their evidentiary value.[6][13] The 2026 civilian investigation followed material across the attacks, abduction, and captivity and identified thirteen recurring patterns.[2]

Those thirteen categories included rape and gang rape, sexual torture and mutilation, forced nudity, assaults in front of family members, and filming and online circulation of abuse.[15] The list also included sexual humiliation, abduction of mothers and children, mistreatment of bodies, and sexual violence against men and boys.[15] The scope of the documentation thus included forms of gender-based abuse beyond rape, as well as violations against both living victims and the bodies of those killed.[15]

The recurrence of reported methods across separate locations was a major element in later analyses.[13] The 2025 project described sexual violence in at least six locations and examined repeated methods as well as accounts of continued assaults during captivity.[13] The 2026 civilian investigation similarly considered repetition across locations and across the stages of attack, abduction, and captivity.[15] Its summary described cases in which abuse of hostages continued for months.[2]

The preservation and organization of evidence also developed over time.[2][14] The early international mission reviewed thousands of photographs and hours of footage during a short visit, while the later civilian investigation described a secure archive incorporating public material, testimony, and forensic review.[1][14] Later work expanded the range of accounts available for analysis, including released hostages, rescue workers, relatives, medical experts, and survivors.[12][14] Both early and later documentation identified the possibility that additional testimony would emerge only after a substantial passage of time.[6][14]

Confidentiality remained part of that documentary record.[6][7] The preliminary rape crisis centers’ report withheld some confidential accounts, and the international mission did not publish identifying details of survivors whose experiences informed its hostage findings.[6][7] Trauma, fear of identification and further harm, displacement, privacy concerns, and mistrust affected whether people were willing or able to speak.[4][7] The mission also received confidential graphic material that was not published in its report.[11]

The evidence review treated visual information as one component of a wider assessment rather than as a substitute for testimony and context.[4][5] The international commission examined exposure, restraints, body position, isolation, and signs of force in combination.[5] The earlier mission likewise considered recurring conditions of recovered bodies alongside accounts of events and other information.[4] Its report emphasized that rape may leave no visible injury, making the relationship between photographs, testimony, and further investigation important to the record.[4]

The March 2024 mission did not determine prevalence or attribute specific violations to particular armed groups; its mandate was not a criminal investigation.[1] The later international commission concluded that sexual violence occurred at several named locations but could not determine the exact identity of the perpetrators or whether they belonged to Hamas’s military wing, other Palestinian armed groups, or civilians from Gaza.[5] It separately said it could not independently verify the rape allegations it reviewed and excluded specific accounts found false, inaccurate, or contradictory.[5] The commission nevertheless found reasonable grounds that sexual violence occurred, while the March mission reached separate reasonable-grounds findings concerning rape at Nova, Road 232, and Re’im.[1][5]

The attribution of sexual assaults to Hamas terrorists appears in the American 2023 human-rights assessment, which cited Israeli authorities, civil-society evidence, testimony, and videos posted by Hamas.[3] That attribution was not a shared finding of the two international processes.[1][5] Hamas denied claims of harm to civilians, including rape.[7]

The March mission found at least two widely repeated Be’eri allegations unfounded, including an account concerning a pregnant woman and fetus and an interpretation of a girl’s partly naked body whose position had been altered by a bomb squad.[4] It could not establish whether sexual violence occurred in Be’eri, verify allegations involving objects inserted into genital organs, or establish reported rape and genital mutilation at Nahal Oz.[4] It also could not verify sexual violence at Kfar Aza or additional rape reports along Road 232.[4] Its open-source review found no material specifically depicting acts of sexual violence, and the available imagery did not establish a discernible pattern of genital mutilation.[4]

The characterization of the violence as systematic and deliberate was a conclusion of the preliminary rape crisis centers’ report and subsequent project assessments, rather than a determination made by the March mission.[6][13] The 2026 civilian commission concluded that the violence was systematic, widespread, and integral to the attacks and argued that the crimes met international-law categories including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts; these were the commission’s assessments, not criminal-court judgments.[2] The mission’s separately recorded, unverified information about alleged sexual violence against Palestinians in detention, home raids, and at crossings was distinct from its findings about October 7 and hostage captivity.[16]