‘Silenced No More’: Report Details Sexual Violence Was ‘Deliberate, Systematic’ in Hamas’ Oct. 7 Massacre

A major new report from a two-year investigation documenting Hamas’s October 7 atrocities concluded that sexual violence during the terror group’s massacre and subsequent hostage captivity was “deliberate,” “systematic,” and “integral” to the attack, detailing what researchers described as recurring patterns of rape, sexual torture, mutilation, and abuse carried out across massacre sites, abduction routes, and throughout the prolonged captivity of hostages in Gaza.

The 300-page report — titled Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled — was released Tuesday by the Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children following a two-year investigation into the atrocities committed during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, in which roughly 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 taken hostage into Gaza.

Led by Israel Prize laureate and international law expert Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the investigation concluded that sexual and gender-based violence carried out by Hamas terrorists and other Palestinian attackers was widespread, recurring, and operational in nature rather than isolated acts committed amid the chaos of the assault.

The report concluded the sexual violence was designed not only to brutalize victims directly, but also to terrorize Israeli society as a whole through what investigators described as deliberate and recurring patterns of extreme abuse.

Drawing on more than 10,000 photographs and video segments, over 1,800 hours of visual analysis, and more than 430 testimonies and interviews with survivors, released hostages, witnesses, first responders, medical personnel, and victims’ families, the commission described the findings as the most comprehensive evidentiary archive compiled to date regarding the October 7 atrocities and subsequent hostage captivity.

The investigation documented what researchers identified as 13 recurring forms of sexual and gender-based violence allegedly carried out during the massacre and in Gaza captivity, including rape, gang rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, genital mutilation, executions linked to sexual violence, postmortem abuse, sexual humiliation, and assaults carried out in front of family members.

Investigators concluded the recurring patterns across multiple locations — including the Nova music festival, kibbutzim, roadside shelters, military bases, abduction routes, and hostage captivity sites in Gaza — demonstrated 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 report additionally introduced the term “kinocidal sexual violence,” described as sexual violence intended not only to harm direct victims but also to psychologically destroy familial bonds and terrorize entire families and communities.

Among the allegations detailed in the report were accounts that hostages and family members were, in at least one documented case, coerced into participating in acts of sexual abuse against one another as part of what investigators described as an effort to psychologically destroy familial bonds.

Investigators additionally concluded that Hamas weaponized the digital dissemination of the atrocities — filming, livestreaming, and circulating acts of abuse, humiliation, murder, and hostage captivity through social media platforms and even victims’ own accounts in order to amplify psychological terror far beyond the attack sites themselves.

One Nova music festival survivor, Darin Komarov, described hearing a rape taking place during the assault.

“You hear the screams … and then you hear silence,” she testified.

Another Nova survivor, Raz Cohen, testified that he witnessed Hamas terrorists drag a woman from a vehicle before raping and murdering her.

“The men pulled a woman from the vehicle … forcibly removed her clothing, and raped her,” Cohen testified, according to the report. “They repeatedly stabbed her, killing her … They continued to rape her after her death.”

The report additionally detailed allegations that sexual abuse persisted throughout hostage captivity in Gaza, affecting both female and male captives for prolonged periods.

Some released hostages publicly identified in the report included Romi Gonen, Arbel Yehud, Amit Soussana, and Ilana Gritzewsky, while other testimonies were provided confidentially to investigators, medical professionals, and legal experts.

Among the allegations highlighted in reporting surrounding the investigation were claims that two minors held hostage in Gaza were sexually abused and forced by captors to perform sexual acts on one another.

The commission stated that many victims were unable to testify because they were murdered during or after the assaults, while crime scenes were often burned, destroyed, or rendered inaccessible during the fighting.

Rather than relying on single witnesses or isolated forensic evidence, investigators said the commission built its evidentiary findings through cumulative corroboration — cross-referencing testimonies, visual evidence, site analysis, timelines, and recurring operational patterns.

The report concluded the documented acts constitute potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law while calling for specialized prosecutorial frameworks focused specifically on sexual and gender-based atrocities committed during armed conflict.

The commission additionally stated the findings establish what it described as a “clear roadmap” for future prosecutions tied to the October 7 massacre and hostage captivity.

“For two years, we have listened to survivors and witnesses, painstakingly examined the evidence, and confronted material that is often beyond comprehension,” Elkayam-Levy stated. “The report reveals that sexual violence was a deliberate strategy carried out with exceptional cruelty.”

The report was endorsed or supported by multiple prominent international legal and political figures, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Israeli Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, and former U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Wairimu Nderitu.

Following the report’s release, Israel’s Knesset this week passed legislation establishing a special military tribunal to prosecute October 7 perpetrators, specifically including sexual crimes among the alleged war crimes committed during the attack.

The findings also echoed earlier conclusions by a United Nations mission led by Special Representative Pramila Patten, which previously found “reasonable grounds to believe” conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred during the October 7 massacre and may have continued during hostage captivity in Gaza.

Former Israeli hostage Tal Shoham — who spent more than 16 months in Hamas captivity and later spoke exclusively with Breitbart News last October — similarly described systematic humiliation, starvation, psychological torture, and staged propaganda operations carried out by Hamas guards while hostages were held underground in Gaza tunnels.

“They told us openly: we are starving you so you will come out looking like after the Holocaust — skeletal, emaciated — so Israelis will feel pressure,” Shoham told Breitbart News at the time.

Shoham additionally described Hamas guards filming staged propaganda videos while deliberately starving captives, weaponizing food deprivation, humiliation, and psychological abuse throughout prolonged underground captivity.

The Civil Commission stated its investigation was designed not only to preserve historical documentation of the atrocities but also to establish prosecutorial mechanisms capable of holding perpetrators and facilitators accountable under international law.