The Meda Line: Israeli Civil Commission Report Says Hamas-Led October 7 Attack Included Organized Sexual Violence 

Israeli Civil Commission Report Says Hamas-Led October 7 Attack Included Organized Sexual Violence 

By The Meda Line Staff 

An Israeli civil society commission said Tuesday that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups used sexual and gender-based violence as part of the October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, issuing a 300-page report based on two years of documentation, testimony, forensic review, and visual evidence. 

Titled Silenced No More, the report was published by the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children. The commission said its findings were drawn from more than 10,000 photos and video segments, more than 1,800 hours of visual material, and more than 430 interviews, testimonies, and meetings with survivors, witnesses, released hostages, experts, and relatives of victims. 

According to the commission, investigators identified 13 recurring forms of sexual and gender-based violence during the attack and during captivity in Gaza, including rape, gang rape, forced nudity, sexual torture, mutilation, sexual abuse after death, and assaults carried out in front of family members. It also said some relatives were coerced into sexual acts against one another, a category the commission described as “kinocidal sexual violence.” 

“The scale, coordination, and repetition of the conduct demonstrate a widespread and systematic attack against civilians in which sexual violence was deliberately used as a method of terror,” the investigation found. 

Perpetrators recorded, livestreamed, and distributed images of abuse and killings through social media and victims’ own digital accounts, turning the documentation itself into a tool of psychological warfare against families and the wider Israeli public, the report said. 

Commission members concluded that the acts documented in the report amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law. They urged Israeli authorities and foreign governments to treat sexual and gender-based violence as a distinct category of criminal accountability in future prosecutions. 

Those findings build on earlier assessments, including a March 2024 report by United Nations Special Representative Pramila Patten, whose team found “reasonable grounds” to believe conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the October 7 attacks and “clear and convincing information” that hostages held in Gaza had been subjected to sexual violence. 

On October 7, Hamas-led fighters crossed from Gaza into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 251 hostages. Israel has said hundreds of attackers were captured in Israel after the assault. The Knesset on Monday passed legislation to establish a special tribunal to try October 7 suspects, including for alleged sexual crimes.