Amit Soussana and Rom Braslavski, two Israeli citizens who were recently liberated from violent captivity in Gaza, have gone public with their testimony. They claim that these women experienced sexual register while in custody. Both men described the extreme torture they faced while in custody of armed opposition groups. This was compounded by the barbaric actions of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad towards civilians.
Despite the challenging journey that lay ahead, Soussana was successfully freed from almost two months of captivity. He claims that a Hamas guard raped him at gunpoint while he was in detention. He is one of many former hostages to have recounted experiences of sexual violence in captivity.
Braslavski, 21, was abducted from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. He was eventually released after being incarcerated for over two years, which led to an immensely traumatic experience, which he recently described in detail. He further alleged that his Palestinian Islamic Jihad captors defrocked him, leaving him naked and bound. He called the violence a “new low” and a “horrific act.” Braslavski believes that the purpose of the act was not only to cause physical violence. What it really wanted to do was “crush my dignity.”
“It is sexual violence and its main purpose was to humiliate me. The goal was to crush my dignity and that’s exactly what he did,” – Rom Braslavski
In a vivid account of his ordeal, Braslavski recounted, “They stripped me of all my clothes, my underwear, everything. They tied me up from the …” He expressed the difficulty of discussing these traumatic moments, stating, “It’s hard for me to talk about that part, specifically. I don’t like to talk about it.”
The allegations do not stand alone. The Dinal Project put together a report documenting these types of sexual violence claims regarding Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. More than a dozen former hostages recalled experiences of physical or sexual abuse or told stories of watching it happen.
Braslavski’s experiences were compounded by further distress when his father revealed that he did not recognize his son in footage released by militants after his abduction. Through it all, his mother shared with us her son’s fight. She shared how he was forced to convert to Islam in exchange for food during his time in captivity.
In response to allegations of sexual violence or abuse toward Israeli hostages, Hamas officials have consistently denied these claims. The assertions leveled by Soussana and Braslavski are damaging. These allegations, along with others, have raised grave concerns regarding the treatment of captives by such militant groups.
Braslavski expressed his daily struggle while in captivity, saying, “You just pray to God for it to stop. While I was there – every day, every beating – I’d say to myself, ‘I survived another day in hell.’”
