Sexual and gender-based violence in the October 7 attacks
During the October 7 attacks, Israeli women, girls and men were reportedly subjected to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants. The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.
The extent of sexual violence perpetrated by militants, and whether it was planned and weaponised by the attackers, has been the subject of intense debate and controversy. Initially said to be "dozens" by Israeli authorities, they later clarified they could not provide a number.
In January 2024, it was reported that several victims of sexual violence from 7 October and captivity in Gaza had come forward. A number of initial testimonies of sexual violence were later discredited, while Israel has accused international human rights groups of downplaying assault reports. As of January 2025, the former head of the security cases division in Israel's Southern District prosecutor's office said that no case was being filed due to a lack of evidence and complainants, which she said could be due to victims being dead or unwilling to come forward.
The UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, reported in March 2024, with the "full cooperation" of the Israeli government, that there was "clear and convincing information" that Israeli hostages in Gaza had experienced sexual violence, and that there was "reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence occurred during the 7 October attacks". The report was not a full investigation, but designed to "collect and verify allegations", and the team stated that their conclusions fell below the legal threshold of being "beyond a reasonable doubt". The UN Commission of Inquiry subsequently published a legally mandated report in June 2024 that stated there was "a pattern indicative of sexual violence by Palestinian forces during the attack", but that it was unable to independently verify allegations of rape due to Israel's obstruction of its investigation. It also found some of the allegations to be false and found "no credible evidence" that Palestinian militants had received orders to commit sexual violence.
On 12 April 2024, the European Union sanctioned military and special forces wings of Hamas and the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad due to their responsibility for the alleged sexual violence on 7 October. The EU said the two groups' fighters "committed widespread sexual and gender-based violence in a systematic manner, using it as a weapon of war." On 23 April 2024 the annual UN Secretary-General's report called on the Israeli government to allow access to "relevant UN bodies to carry out a fully-fledged investigation into all alleged violations". In July 2025, Hamas was added to the UN's sexual violence blacklist.
Evidence
The attacks by Hamas on Israeli communities, in which 1,139 people were killed and 240 hostages were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, reportedly involved widespread sexual violence. Hamas fighters infiltrated Israeli towns, where witnesses said they tortured, raped and sexually assaulted many women and girls of all ages, and some men.Following the attacks, Israeli police, Shin Bet and Israeli military began to collect evidence, take witness statements and to interrogate captured Hamas militants concerning the alleged sexual violence perpetrated during the 7 October attack. Police recorded the difficulty in collecting physical evidence in a war zone. Due to this the full extent of the crimes may never be known. Authorities retrieved video evidence, photographs of victims' bodies, and militants' testimonies which they said confirmed accounts of sexual assault. Autopsies of victims also corroborated these accounts, according to the Israeli police. To pressure the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for securing the release of hostages, the Hostages Families Forum also released graphic footage of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces women personnel that were previously released by Hamas and edited by the IDF that excluded "the most disturbing scenes".
In November 2023, Ina Kubbe, a scholar specializing in gender and conflict at Tel Aviv University, said that evidence aligns with sexual violence. However, she emphasized the necessity of a forensic investigation for an official determination of rape. In December 2023, in a review of evidence mainly provided by the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli officials, NBC News stated that the evidence "suggests that dozens of Israeli women were raped or sexually abused or mutilated".
Testimony of Israelis
Survivors, victims, witnesses, first responders, and military personnel provided accounts of the alleged rape, mutilation and other sexual violence that Hamas militants inflicted. An official from Lahav 433 told the Knesset that 1,500 testimonies had been collected. Shelly Harush, the police officer leading the investigation recounted to The Times on 2 December 2023: "It's clear now that sexual crimes were part of the planning and the purpose was to terrify and humiliate people."Limited forensic work
Members of the UN, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, and the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel have all noted the lack of forensic investigation that was done on the deceased at the attack locations. Due to the large numbers of deceased individuals Israel was attempting to fully identify all of the victims at least a month after the 7 October attacks, causing overtaxed morgues to not collect physical evidence or process rape kits from any bodies. Morgue officials in Israel reportedly cannot designate individual cases of rape or sexual violence, due to a lack of physical proof that is necessary in a court of law. The UN, which found "clear and convincing information" of sexual violence during the Hamas attacks, reports that the limited forensic evidence is due to both the large number of casualties and the "dispersed crime scenes in a context of persistent hostilities". A government relations officer at the Israel Women's Network said that, most of the raped had been killed, and their bodies were burned or buried along with any forensic evidence. Israeli media acknowledged the scenes of the attacks had not been properly photographed, preserved or forensically examined.Interrogations of Hamas militants
On 24 October Israeli security agencies released video footage, showing their interrogation of seven alleged Hamas militants. On 25 October, the Associated Press analyzed six of these interrogation videos, and stated that they could not independently verify them, and that the alleged militants, who are bloodied and wincing in pain, could have been speaking under duress. On 28 March 2024 the IDF released footage of an alleged PIJ militant, Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Qassem, saying he raped an Israeli woman in a kibbutz on 7 October. In the video, Qassem describes the incident including her clothes, bra and underwear and the fact she was later taken with her mother by two other militants. The following day Middle East Eye reported that the released IDF video "was deleted and reposted several times after commentators noted inconsistencies in the testimony and subtitle mistranslations." It added that "The alleged confession was first reported in December. Since then, despite Qasem providing a detailed description of the victim's physical appearance, the Israeli forces have failed to identify the woman." In May 2024, the IDF released footage of a captured father and son, who were said to be Hamas members, confessing to murdering civilians in their homes, kidnapping victims, and raping women before murdering one of them at kibbutz Nir Oz.Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International stated that these alleged confessions were likely extracted under torture, violate international law and basic human rights, and should be considered inadmissible as credible evidence. They also called on the Israeli government to cease publishing such taped "confessions". Physicians for Human Rights Israel denounced these alleged taped confessions, citing "severe concern that the interrogations included the use of torture." The UN and reports by human rights organizations such as B'Tselem and media outlets have confirmed Israeli systematic use of torture during the Gaza war, including rape, gang-rape, sexualized torture and mutilation of detained Palestinian men, women and children by Israeli guards, including during interrogations.
Prosecution
In December 2024 Ynet published an interview with Israeli prosecutor Moran Gaz, who until recently was in charge of Israel's Southern Prosecutor's Office and a member of Team 7.10 dealing with Hamas crimes on 7 October. Gaz says obtaining justice, particularly for sexual offenses, will be very difficult, and asked the public to lower expectations for it:In the end, we have no complainants. What was presented in the media compared to what will ultimately emerge will be completely different. Either because the victims were murdered, or because the women who were raped by them are not prepared to reveal it. We contacted women's rights organizations and asked for cooperation. They told us that they simply did not contact them. There were parents who contacted the organizations and asked what to do if something happened to their daughter, but they did not disclose the abuse...I know there is public expectation and understand the need to address the horrific sexual crimes and sexual assaults that have been committed, but the vast majority of them will not be able to meet the threshold of proof in court, and the criticism will ultimately come to the prosecutor's office – unjustly.Gaz also said she wants everyone who crossed the fence "to kill or to loot, it doesn't matter" to face the death penalty.