Israeli nonprofit hopes new report on Oct. 7 sexual violence becomes ‘watershed moment,’ gets attention of world parliaments

In the roughly two-and-a-half years since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks, Israel has presented extensive evidence of terrorists subjecting women and girls to sexual violence both during the attacks and subsequently in captivity in Gaza. A report, which the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes Against Women and Children released on Tuesday, aims to get the attention of both prosecutors and parliamentarians worldwide, according to the independent Israeli nonprofit.

“The most important impact that is achieved from this work is recognition in the historical record of what happened to the victims,” Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder of the commission, told JNS. “We aim now for institutional recognition and to bring the report to parliaments around the world.”

"A legal and historical foundation for accountability"

“The report is also a legal and historical foundation for accountability,” which “provides a prosecution-oriented framework for future investigations into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal acts,” said Elkayam-Levy, a lawyer who has previously advised the Israeli attorney general.

“It maps patterns, identifies operational methods and outlines avenues for responsibility that extend beyond direct perpetrators to those who planned, facilitated, amplified or enabled these crimes,” she told JNS. “We also believe the report advances the international legal understanding of conflict-related sexual violence, particularly through the concept of kinocidal sexual violence—a term we coined to describe sexual violence intended to torture families and exploit familial bonds to increase the suffering of the victims.”

"A watershed moment"

On a broader level, Elkayam-Levy hopes that the report “becomes a watershed moment in how the international community responds to sexual violence in armed conflict.”

The report is based on an investigation spanning 10,000 photographs and videos, 430 testimonies and interviews and more than 1,800 hours of footage, including footage recorded by the terrorists.

Sexual and gender-based violence occurred at multiple locations during the Hamas-led assault, including at the Nova music festival, kibbutzes, roads and military bases, and it continued during the abduction of hostages and their captivity in Gaza, according to the commission.

Patterns of abuse across attack sites

The report identified recurring patterns of abuse across attack sites. Investigators concluded that the repetition of these acts demonstrated that they were “not isolated acts of brutality but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath.”

Testimonies from survivors, released hostages, first responders and medical personnel described assaults committed during the attacks and in captivity. Several former hostages reported ongoing sexual abuse while held in Gaza.

Elkayam-Levy told JNS that evidence in the report “speaks for itself.”

“Sexual violence in conflict has historically been denied, especially when acknowledging it is politically uncomfortable, but human rights cannot depend on politics,” she said. “The victims of Oct. 7 and those who returned from the hell of captivity deserve the same recognition and protection afforded to victims anywhere else in the world.”

Suddenly silent

According to an April 2026 report by Boundless, a US-based think tank focused on Israel and antisemitism, 49% of the US population agreed that Hamas committed acts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 and that there is video and photographic evidence.

“When women were assaulted, mutilated and murdered by Hamas terrorists, too many voices who claim to champion justice suddenly went silent,” Jayne Zirkle, director of communications at the Lawfare Project, told JNS.

“Others went even further, mocking survivors, denying evidence and spreading propaganda designed to protect terrorists from accountability,” Zirkle said. “Imagine telling victims of any other mass atrocity that their testimony is politically inconvenient.”

“The erasure of suffering"

“The evidence of Hamas’s sexual violence has been documented by eyewitnesses, first responders, forensic teams, released hostages and international investigations,” Zirkle told JNS. Oct. 7 rape deniers are complicit in “the erasure of suffering,” she added.

“Terror groups thrive when the world rationalizes evil instead of confronting it,” she told JNS. “We must ensure this never happens again by speaking the truth clearly and without apology.”

Sigal Kraunik, of Kibbutz Be’eri, whose husband Arik was killed by terrorists on Oct. 7, told JNS that “Hamas and the terrorist organizations are busy with propaganda that they are the victim, and the world is buying it.”

Human rights organizations were notably silent about Hamas’s atrocities, she told JNS.

“They do not really protect the weak,” she said. “They are a large part of the machine that works to hate Jews and Israel.”

"A liar’s a liar"

Jacqueline Carroll, a former sexual crimes prosecutor in Cook County, Ill., and founder of a consulting firm that focuses on fighting hate, told JNS that she hopes that some of the perpetrators might be still “under the jurisdiction of Israel” so that they can face legal consequences.

The evidence in the report could also be used for sanctions, reparations and individual cases, including the possibility of American victims suing, she told JNS, prior to the release of the report.

Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS that the report’s findings could form the basis for future prosecutions before the International Criminal Court, an independent judicial body in The Hague, “if its anti-Jewish bias doesn’t get in the way.”

The court, which is independent of the United Nations, has accused Israeli leaders of overseeing “genocide” in Gaza and issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and former defense minister. Israel is not a party to the court.

The report “forces the world to confront Oct. 7 sexual violence as a documented atrocity

The report “forces the world to confront Oct. 7 sexual violence as a documented atrocity, not a disputed talking point,” Filitti told JNS, prior to its release.

“The world now has to reckon with the legal questions that demand answers and consequences,” he said. “How was it organized, who knew, who participated, who commanded and who facilitated?”

The commission called for coordinated international investigations and prosecutions and for creating specialized war crime units focused on sexual and gender-based violence.

"An indictment of Hamas”

The new report is an “indictment of Hamas,” according to Filitti. “Terror apologists will attack the source and call it propaganda, but the world will not be able to deny the reality of these atrocities,” he said.

Two Jewish leaders told JNS prior to the release of the report that those who hate Israel will likely deny the report’s findings.

Rabbi David Katz, executive director of the Israel Heritage Foundation, told JNS that Oct. 7 deniers will likely not be persuaded by the report.

“A person that’s a liar is a liar,” he said. “A person that does not want to be realistic is not realistic.”

"Those who choose denial will not be swayed by any evidence or report"

Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the Orthodox Union, told JNS that “unfortunately, those who choose denial, ‘asking questions’ and the demonization of Jews, regardless of facts, will not be swayed by any evidence or report.”

Joseph said that there is a Jewish tradition of remembering not only “moments of miracle and salvation but also moments of oppression and unspeakable atrocities.”

“Our enduring identity is tied to the memory and commemoration of our experience,” he said.

He advised readers to be deliberate about engaging with the report, which documents horrible crimes in explicit detail.

Readers should balance “the responsibilities of bearing witness and remembering with maintaining dignity for victims and caring for one’s own psyche,” he said.

© JNS