‘It devastates us’: Families of October 7 victims react as full extent of horrors are revealed in historic report

The Civil Commission, an independent Israeli NGO, identified at least 13 recurring patterns of abuse.

These included rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, abductions of mothers and children, public humiliation and violence carried out in front of family members.

Men and boys were also among the victims.

In some cases, relatives were forced to witness or endure abuse together, intensifying the suffering and terror.

Many victims and witnesses remained silent for years, investigators say, because the trauma was simply too overwhelming to relive – and many did not survive.

The report describes what it calls a horrifying strategy of targeting families as a weapon of terror.

Victims were sexually assaulted or humiliated in front of relatives.

The Commission refers to this as “kinocidal sexual violence” – a campaign designed to destroy the family unit by weaponising the deepest bonds between loved ones.

The testimony is severely distressing. The report opens with accounts from the Nova festival and other attacks, then continues with accounts from some of the hostages who testified on release.

Memorial composed of photos of young Israelis killed during the terrorist attack on the NOVA Festival on October 7, 2023, a few kilometers from Gaza (Image: Getty)Getty Images

It describes a pattern of extreme sexual violence and humiliation. Women were deliberately shot in the face in an apparent attempt to disfigure them.

Some who had been murdered were found naked with their legs forced open. Grenades, rods and household tools were forcibly inserted into the corpses. Many victims bore multiple gunshot wounds, and signs of deliberate burning of their faces and across their bodies.

The sister of a woman murdered at the Nova music festival recalled seeing the remains of her sister, in an interview on Israeli TV: “It devastates us. It ought to be explained to those ministers, Knesset members, decision makers – hundreds of families whose loved ones were murdered on October 7 were advised not to identify the bodies because the sights were difficult, and we were asked to remember them as they were before, beautiful young people.

“But for those who need a reminder, I invite them to come with me to the offices of Lahav 433 [the police investigation unit] and open my sister Noa’s file. And to see, that beyond two bullet wounds to her chest, an additional confirmation shot was fired to her face.”

The testimony collated in the report relentlessly documents unimaginable evil. Two relatives held hostage in Gaza were forced to sexually assault each other.

Other hostage family members were assaulted in front of their relatives.

Hostages separated from their parents were sexually assaulted and threatened with forced marriage.

Both women and men were subject to sexual assault, both on October 7 and in captivity.

One hostage from the Nova festival, Romi Gonen, remembered being taken to the Shifa Hospital, where she was held in a room and put on a bed.

Former hostage Romi Gonen (Image: Channel 12)[Missing Credit]

She said: “One guy just starts cutting off all my clothes. One guy takes off my shoes, another takes off my earrings, another takes the jewellery off my body, and I’m just like this.

“And around 15 people are touching me at the same time, until it gets to the point where they cut off all my clothes. And then I’m lying naked.”

A medical orderly visited her under the pretext of changing the bandages on her injured arm. He later exploited his access and the veneer of “care”: “I go into shower and he allows himself to enter the shower because he’s a medic and he’s coming to help me shower, and I’m injured, and I have no power over them.

“And I’m in a situation where there’s nothing I can do, and he took everything from me. I felt like that was it, after everything that happened… and this is only the beginning, you understand?

“Only four days had passed. I already felt like there was nothing left of me.”

Hostages being moved inside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City (Image: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)[Missing Credit]

The evidence is overwhelming and deeply disturbing. The report does not provide a precise figure for how many people were subjected to sexual violence as many victims were killed.

In many cases, the condition of bodies or the destruction of attack sites makes it impossible to determine the full extent of what occurred.

Evidence was gathered during and immediately after the attacks in an active war zone, which inevitably limited what could be documented.

Sexual and gender-based violence is also chronically under-reported, particularly in conflict, with survivors and witnesses often taking years – if ever – to come forward, and testimonies continuing to emerge. In addition, parts of the evidentiary record were lost, destroyed or remain inaccessible.

For these reasons, the Commission chose not to present potentially misleading numerical estimates, instead focusing on corroborated evidence and recurring patterns across locations and phases that demonstrate the violence was systematic, not incidental.

The report concludes that sexual and gender-based violence against Israeli men and women were a central element of the October 7 attack, and that these abuses formed part of the wider assault and continued into captivity.

“Given the profound and lasting impact on victims and their families, the report argues that these grave violations of international law demand a distinct and focused legal response.

Adv. Merav Israeli Amarant, CEO of the Civil Commission, told the JC: “From the very beginning, we understood that the first and most important question is not only who can ultimately be prosecuted, or under which legal categories, but what actually happened.

“Victims deserve recognition, acknowledgement, and a truthful historical record even in cases where prosecutorial mechanisms may never fully address the scope of the crimes committed.

“Establishing the factual record is therefore not secondary to justice it is an essential part of justice itself.

“At the same time, accountability requires learning from the world’s most significant international prosecutions, from Nuremberg to the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and now to the evolving legal efforts surrounding Ukraine. We studied how evidence was preserved, how prosecutorial frameworks were built, and how societies transformed atrocity into legal accountability.

“The Civil Commission created this report and archive to support prosecutions in as many courts and jurisdictions around the world as possible. But throughout this entire process, our focus never shifted from the victims themselves.

“Every decision, legal, evidentiary, and historical, was made through a survivor-centred lens, with the responsibility to document their experiences with dignity, precision, and truth.”

Investigators say the evidence shows a clear, organised pattern of abuse carried out across multiple locations – from family homes and roads to public spaces and the Nova Music Festival site – often in front of relatives to deepen the horror. Survivors and witnesses are said to be living with severe and lasting physical and psychological trauma.

Furthermore they say the atrocities were filmed and spread online as propaganda. Videos and images show militants and civilians celebrating, humiliating victims and presenting women’s bodies as “trophies of war”. Footage was shared on social media and even sent directly to families to intimidate and torment them.

The report also says Hamas staged and released hostage videos during captivity, showing victims being taunted, abused and humiliated on camera for months after the attacks.

This digital campaign, the Commission says, turned visibility itself into a weapon, prolonging the trauma for survivors and their families long after the violence ended. It is important to note that this is not a state inquiry, which has yet to take place due to the wars triggered after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

However, pressure is mounting on the government from bereaved families demanding a full and transparent investigation into what happened on that dreadful day.

A senior political source says: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has proposed an independent bipartisan commission, modeled on the US National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, with full authority to question any witness and obtain all relevant evidence.

“Unlike a State Commission of Inquiry headed by a judge, whose composition is determined by a judiciary that many Israelis believe has become politicised, this commission would include members acceptable to both the coalition and the opposition.

“Its purpose is to establish the full truth about October 7 in a thorough and non-political manner.”

But the loved ones left behind by the victims will have their own demands. A source close to the relatives says: ”The families have so many questions, they want to see open intelligence leading up to October 7th, and demand all the footage released from that day… Families deserve answers.”