Report: Hamas’ use of ‘sexual violence as a weapon of war’ – evidence for future legal action

The site of the Nova Festival, following the October 7 2023 massacre

Linda Dayan writes in Haaretz on 8 July 2025:

Content warning: This report contains descriptions of sexual violence.

An Israeli initiative made up of legal scholars and gender experts released a report on Tuesday, aiming to bring awareness to acts of sexual violence against Israelis during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and in captivity in Gaza, and hoping to bring justice for the victims.

The report by the Dinah Project was written by its founders: legal scholar Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, attorney and former chief military prosecutor Col. (res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas and former judge and Deputy Attorney General Nava Ben-Or.

In the report, they compiled testimonies from first-hand survivors, 17 people who saw or heard attacks, therapists who worked with survivors, a victim of attempted rape at the Nova festival, dozens of first responders and 15 former hostages who returned from Hamas captivity – including two men.

This information, they noted, was assessed and cross-checked for accuracy. “Our experience in criminal law and sexual violence cases was of particular value in our efforts to organize and analyze the data,” they wrote. “No source was accepted at face value.”

They added that the report is meant to support future legal proceedings and investigations, whether in Israeli courts, international tribunals or other inquiries. The report urges Israeli authorities, the United Nations and other international actors to make use of the evidentiary and legal frameworks they put forward to prosecute these cases.

The report also recommends further development of international criminal legal tools meant to address acts of sexual violence committed as part of “ideologically motivated campaigns of destruction.”

The authors specifically urge Israeli authorities to file criminal charges for sexual violence, calling it a “moral and legal imperative.” Failing to do so, they warn, will undermine public trust in the justice system and signal to perpetrators that sexual violence in war will go unpunished.  They also call on Israel and the United Nations to support a follow-up visit by the UN’s envoy on sexual violence in conflict, following the initial visit which took place shortly after the attacks.

United Nations special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, meeting with representatives of the Zaka emergency service in January 2024

The authors write that the report intends to correct the historical record, following denialism of sexual violence during the October 7 attacks. “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war,” they wrote, calling on the UN secretary-general to blacklist Hamas – as an organization that implements sexual violence as a weapon of war.

Conflict-related sexual violence, or CRSV, can constitute a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, according to the Rome Statute.

According to the report, one first-hand survivor testified to sexual assault and attempted rape at the Nova music festival site near Re’im in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023.

The 15 survivors of captivity in Gaza told of their own experiences of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, forced nudity (including of a child), threats of rape, sexual humiliation and threats of forced marriage. Male survivors of captivity also reported forced nudity and sexual humiliation.

The majority of those who were assaulted on October 7 were murdered, the compilers of the report note, and cannot testify. Many who did survive are “likely too traumatized to be able to recount their experience.” It took more than 17 months, they added, for the survivor of the assault at the Nova festival to be able to account her experiences to them.

The researchers do have more information from survivors of sexual abuse on October 7, but say that the information cannot be shared due to professional confidentiality-related ethical codes.

“The sexual assaults that took place on October 7 and the ongoing sexual abuse of the hostages should be viewed as a continuum, spanning from the sexual atrocities committed in the Gaza Envelope, through the sexual abuse and humiliation during the abduction, and extending to the captivity, where sexual abuse was committed in the context of total powerlessness, vulnerability and dependence,” the report states.

Since Hamas had planned to take hostages as part of the attack at the outset, the events that took place in captivity should be considered as part of the October 7 attack, and the survivors’ accounts should be “relevant for assessing Hamas’ tactical use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,” the report states.

The report also includes testimonies from people who saw or heard such assaults themselves, both during the October 7 attack and in captivity in Gaza. Some testimonies include reports of at least four separate cases of gang rape on October 7, and of at least eight cases of rape or severe sexual assault, some in captivity.

In most of the cases reported by witnesses, the victims were murdered during or after the assault. The report notes that there was “more than one report of continuous sexual assault after the victim was no longer alive.” First responders and personnel assisting emergency service workers corroborated the reports.

Separately, dozens of bodies were reported to be found bearing indications of sexual assault. Some were recovered with foreign objects inserted into them, with gunshots or other mutilations in the genitals; in other cases, the remains of naked women were found cuffed to trees or lying with their genitalia exposed and legs spread.

“Descriptions of the extreme degree of mutilation are repeated in these accounts, adding to the evidence of a pattern, particularly when we note that these atrocities took place in a relatively short period of time,” the report says. These bodies were reported at the Nova site, on Route 232 and in kibbutzim along the Gaza border.

Many of the cases named in the report are also acknowledged and referenced in other official reports, such as the 2024 paper by Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the report by the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (CoI/Commission) that same year.

Those reports also note that sexual violence took place in several locations in Israel, attribute acts of sexual violence to Hamas and acknowledge that the attacks were part of a pattern of sexual violence.

At an unveiling of the report at the President’s Residence on Tuesday, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky addressed the ceremony. “I’m here today for every woman who still can’t speak,” she said. “For the men who were harmed and are choking in silence. For those who were murdered – whose voices will never be heard.”

This article is reproduced in its entirety