Editor’s note: This article contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
Even amid a whirlwind of opinions, there is no doubt that the war in Gaza has led to a humanitarian crisis. As well as starvation, death and destruction, a pair of reports released this week shed light on the scale of alleged sexual abuse through October 7, 2023 and beyond.
A two year investigation The Citizens’ Commission in Israel, which describes itself as an independent non-governmental group, says it has examined thousands of photographs and videos and interviewed hundreds of witnesses to the October 7 attacks.
Its authors, led by Kochav Elkayim-Levi, said the report was “guided by internationally recognized methods for documenting war crimes and sexual violence.” It has also been endorsed by several important political, legal and human rights figures, including Hillary Clinton and former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.
It found that Hamas “deliberately and systematically used sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) as an underlying part of a broader strategy of attacks, primarily targeting women and hostages, while minors were also subjected to serious forms of such violence and abuse.”
Hamas has consistently denied such allegations.
Painful stories of abuse told in video
The acts were committed at the Nova Music Festival as well as on military bases, and in some cases in front of family members, reports said. It said Hamas and its affiliated militias “used sexual torture to maximize pain and suffering. Victims endured brutal acts, including burning, mutilation, rape, restraining, forced insertion of objects into the genitals, firing on the face and genital area, killings and ill-treatment in front of family members, and executions.”
The report also featured a video in which released Israeli hostages told harrowing stories of their own and others’ abuse.
Nova Music Festival survivor Raz Cohen said, “The men pulled a woman from the vehicle… forced her clothes off and raped her, they stabbed her repeatedly with a knife, killing her. They continued to rape her even after her death.”
The United Nations doubts the full scale will ever be known.
The UN’s 2024 report broadly agrees with the allegations made by Israel. In it, the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, concluded during a fact-finding mission that “there were reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, had occurred.”
Patton’s findings were not designed to be scrutinized, and due to hostilities he visited Israel and the occupied West Bank, but not the Gaza Strip.
During a visit to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Patton and his team also found that “negotiators raised concerns about cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including invasive body searches, threats of rape and prolonged forced nudity, as well as various forms of sexual violence such as sexual assault and raids on homes and threats of rape at checkpoints.”
Israel hits out at sex abuse claims
Such patterns of behavior are also detailed in a recent article by Nicholas Kristof new York Times. It is labeled as an opinion article but relies on numerous interviews with people from the Palestinian territories.
Kristof describes it as “conversations with 14 men and women who said they were sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces” as well as “family members, investigators, officials and others.” The story details some of the horrific abuses.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed the claims as “baseless lies” and a “blood libel” that reflect an “anti-Israel campaign”.
Children’s charity found to have committed mass sexual abuse
Christophe’s report also cites a Save the Children report from 2025 Which investigated the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli custody. More than half of the children interviewed “said they had either witnessed or experienced sexual violence while in custody,” the report said.
The Save the Children report said the types of abuse included: “touching or striking genitals, being forced to take off clothes and performing humiliating acts, sexual assault and sexual harassment, including threats. Some of the children consulted said they had been threatened with rape. Lawyers consulted reported that many of the children they supported had experienced sexual abuse, including cases of rape. are also included.”
Such claims were also presented B’Tselem reports, by the Israeli Center for Human Rights in August 2024, and by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in May 2025. The evidence presented revealed repeated acts of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers or prison guards, which were employed as punishment.
Sexual violence as a tool of war
While the Citizens Commission believes Hamas uses sexual violence as a tool of war, Kristof’s article states that “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rape” before adding that “they have created a security apparatus where sexual violence has become, as a UN report last year said, one of Israel’s ‘standard operating procedures’ and ‘a key element in the abuses of Palestinians.'”
The difficulty UN Special Representative Pramila Patten’s team faced in gathering evidence during such a brutal conflict led her to conclude that “the true prevalence of sexual violence during the 7 October attacks and their consequences may take months or years to emerge and may never be fully known.”
Although that may also be the case, reports this week at least suggest that some victims may at least tell the story of their alleged abuse.
Edited by: Andreas Illmer, Shani Rosnes