The Civil Commission’s report, Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled - The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity, presents a two-year investigation into sexual and gender-based crimes committed by Hamas and its collaborators during the October 7 attacks and against hostages held in Gaza. Based on testimonies, visual evidence, official records, and more than 10,000 photos and video segments, the report concludes that the violence was systematic, widespread, and integral to the attacks, identifies thirteen recurring patterns, and argues that the crimes constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law.
The following is an executive summary of the report. For the full report, click here.
Following a two-year independent investigation, the Civil Commission concludes that sexual and gender-based violence was systematic, widespread, and integral to the October 7th attacks and their aftermath. Across multiple locations and phases of the assault, including during abduction, transfer, and captivity, Hamas and its collaborators deployed recurring tactics of sexual abuse and torture against victims. These crimes were marked by extreme cruelty and profound human suffering, often inflicted in ways designed to amplify terror and humiliation.
This report presents a comprehensive independent evidentiary record, the most extensive assembled to date of the sexual and gender-based crimes committed on October 7th and during captivity. The report draws on extensive factual documentation, including original filmed survivor and witness testimonies, interviews, photographs, videos, official records, and other primary materials from the attack sites. The investigation examined materials from multiple locations, including residential communities, the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, roads and shelters, military bases, and sites associated with the identification of victims’ bodies. It further analyzed testimonies and evidence relating to the abduction, transfer, and prolonged captivity of hostages in Gaza.
Based on this large body of materials, the Commission constructed a dedicated archive preserving these materials within the Civil Commission’s October 7th War Crimes Archive, a secure and carefully curated repository. This evidentiary record is the product of a sustained and methodologically rigorous investigation conducted over a two-year period. The Commission systematically reviewed more than 10,000 photographs and video segments of the attack, amounting to well over 1,800 cumulative hours of analysis of visuals, alongside extensive testimonial work, including the collection, transcription, translation, and cross-referencing of survivor and witness accounts, as well as site visits, expert consultations, and meetings with families and affected communities. Overall, the Commission conducted over 430 formal and informal interviews, testimonies, and meetings with survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, experts and family members. All materials were logged, coded, and mapped across time and geographic locations, and integrated into a dedicated database on sexual and gender-based crimes, forming a structured subsystem within the Civil Commission’s secure archive. Data analysis conducted by the Commission reveals that the victims represented 52 different nationalities, underscoring the international scope of the crimes and their impact. The Commission further conducted an extensive open-source investigation, corroborated materials through geolocation-supported datasets and interdisciplinary expert input, and carried out its work in accordance with internationally recognized standards, including trauma-informed and survivor-centered practices and ethical principles, guided by the principle of “do no harm.” This methodological framework enabled the Commission not only to document individual incidents, but to identify recurring patterns, present a full and comprehensive account of the events, and delineate operational features across sites and phases of the attack.
Considered collectively, these materials illuminate a coherent and structured account that could not previously have been discerned in this manner. Through systematic cross-referencing of this material and detailed analysis of the modus operandi of the perpetrators, the Commission identified thirteen recurring patterns of sexual and gender-based violence committed across multiple locations. The repetition of these patterns demonstrates that the crimes were not isolated acts of brutality but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath.
The investigation also documents how perpetrators weaponized visibility and digital dissemination as part of the violence itself, including sexualized content. Armed groups recorded acts of abuse, humiliation, and killing, and circulated the footage through social media platforms and victims’ own digital accounts. In numerous cases, family members first learned of the fate of their loved ones through images or videos distributed by perpetrators. This deliberate use of digital media transformed acts of violence into instruments of psychological warfare directed not only at victims but also at families and society at large.
The sexual violence continued beyond the attacks themselves. The report extensively documents testimonies from released hostages and other sources demonstrating how sexual assaults, sexual humiliation, and sexualized torture persisted during captivity in Gaza for prolonged periods. In some cases, the sexual and gender-based abuse of hostages continued for months.
In addition to documenting individual crimes, the report identifies a distinct pattern of violence targeting family members and exploiting familial relationships as instruments of terror. In several documented incidents, victims were sexually assaulted or humiliated in the presence of relatives, and in one of the documented cases family members were coerced into participating in acts of abuse against one another. These acts reflect what the Commission characterizes as kinocidal sexual violence—violence deliberately designed to destroy the family as a social and emotional unit by weaponizing the bonds between family members.
Taken together, the Commission’s investigation reveals a coordinated assault in which sexual violence was used to terrorize victims, families, communities, and society at large. Our conclusion is unequivocal: sexual and gender-based violence formed a central component of the October 7th attack and of hostages’ captivity.
Based on its investigation, the Civil Commission’s findings conclude that these crimes constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law. Therefore, the report establishes a clear roadmap for the prosecution of the crimes committed on October 7th and during captivity. The report presents a clear evidentiary and legal foundation for the investigation and prosecution of those responsible. It also highlights the need for specialized prosecutorial structures and gender-competent frameworks to effectively address these crimes.
This work carries a broader historical purpose. At its core, this report is an act of documentation, accountability, and remembrance. Many victims of these crimes did not survive to testify. Others continue to endure profound trauma. By preserving testimonies, documenting evidence, and analyzing the patterns and legal implications of the crimes, the Commission has sought to ensure that the suffering endured by the victims will not be denied, erased, or forgotten.
It records the voices of survivors and witnesses. It preserves the evidentiary foundations necessary for future prosecutions. Furthermore it affirms a fundamental principle of international justice: that even in the aftermath of the most extreme violence, truth must be documented and the suffering of victims must be acknowledged.
Their voices, and the record preserved here, ensure that they are silenced no more.
Source: “Silenced No More - Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities Of October 7 And Against Hostages In Captivity,” The Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes Against Women and Children, (May 12, 2026).