Ex-hostage to UN official who doubted Oct. 7 rape: ‘I am living proof’ of Hamas sexual violence

Former Hamas hostage Ilana Gritzewsky testified before the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday about the sexual violence perpetrated against hostages taken captive during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.

During her testimony, Gritzewsky accused the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Reem Alsalem, of denying evidence that such crimes against women occurred.

“On October 7 and in captivity, Jewish women were raped, abused and humiliated. And you, special rapporteur, you choose silence and denial,” Gritzewsky said at the Palais des Nations, addressing Alsalem, who was in attendance.

“You say there was no evidence of sexual violence on October 7. I’m standing here today, not as a report, not as a statistic; I am a woman who survived. I am the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas,” she continued, saying she “begged not to be raped” by her captors while in captivity.

Alsalem, in November 2025, falsely claimed that there was no independent probe finding evidence of rape during the Hamas attack.

However, a series of investigations have found evidence that Palestinian attackers raped Israelis during the invasion of southern Israel and while they were being held hostage in Gaza, including a 2024 report conducted by Pramila Patten, the UN’s special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict.

“Ms. Alsalem, you said there was no evidence of sexual violence on Oct 7. I’m standing here today, not as a report, not as a statistic. I’m a woman who survived. I’m the living proof of sexual violence by Hamas.”

Powerful speech by ex-hostage Ilana Gritzewsky today at the UN. pic.twitter.com/Ycr4iRx2lv

— Israel in UN/Geneva???????????????? (@IsraelinGeneva) June 23, 2026

Patten’s report stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape and sexual abuse on October 7, and that there was an even higher body of evidence indicating that hostages kidnapped that day were raped and sexually assaulted in captivity.

In her testimony to the UN council, Gritzewsky recounted how, on October 7, she was “sexually abused… beaten and mutilated” by invading terrorists.

“I woke up, half-naked, with seven terrorists standing over me, not knowing what happened to me in those last moments,” she recalled. “I went through days of pain and horror in captivity, and even now the feeling of being powerless and violated still lingers.”

“I came back with a broken hip, a broken jaw, and a scarred soul,” she said. “Trauma doesn’t vanish once you are released. Now, every air raid siren and every rocket from Iran throws me back into that hell.”

Addressing Alsalem directly, Gritzewsky appealed for the special rapporteur to “please look at me.”

“Do you believe us now?” she asked. “Will you apologize?”

Gritzewsky was invited to testify before the council by UN Watch, a pro-Israel NGO that monitors the world body.

The organization’s executive director, Hillel Neuer, told The Times of Israel that it invited her to speak to the council because Alsalem “only comes for a debate once a year — and it was vital to invite a survivor to confront this serial denier with the truth.”

He noted that Gritzewsky spoke directly after Alsalem presented a report on violence against mothers, which discussed the two-year war in Gaza but did not mention October 7.

“Ilana displayed immense courage by standing at the United Nations, reliving the most traumatic moments of her captivity in front of the very official who had denied the sexual violence she endured,” Neuer said.

Gritzewsky also testified before the UN Security Council last year, where she said she had to “beg not to be raped” by her captors, and told them she was on her period in a bid to avoid that fate.

Other returned hostages have also previously testified about experiencing sexual assault at the hands of their captors. The first to do so was Amit Soussana, who told the New York Times in March 2024 that her captor kept her chained up in the dark and forced her to commit sexual acts for him. Others have since come forward to share their own experiences, including Rom Braslavski, who was held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, and Dafna Elyakim, who was 15 years old at the time of her abduction.

There have also been accounts and evidence of sexual violence against victims who were murdered on October 7.

The Dinah Project, an independent Israeli group of legal experts who released a report last year on sexual violence on October 7, said there was evidence of “widespread and systematic” sexual violence in at least six locations that day.

The group said it had testimony from witnesses, first responders, security forces and mortuary attendants, as well as visual and audio evidence to document at least 15 sexual assault cases on October 7.

Gritzewsky was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, along with her partner Matan Zangauker.

During the attack, the two jumped out of the window of the safe room of their home and ran in separate directions after Palestinian terrorists shot at their door. Gritzewsky said gunmen seized her and put her between two men on a motorcycle while her head and face were covered. Her captors would later confirm to her that Zangauker was also a hostage.

Gritzewsky was freed in November 2023 after nearly two months in captivity and joined Matan’s mother, Einav Zangauker, in her ceaseless lobbying for his release. Matan was eventually released two years after he was abducted, in October 2025.

In May, the Foreign Ministry announced that it was cutting ties with the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres after Israel’s security forces were placed on his blacklist of entities said to be credibly accused of sexual violence in war zones.

At the time, the ministry declared it “shameful and absurd” that it was included on the same blacklist as Hamas, which was added the previous year.

The 2026 edition of the Secretary-General’s Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which covers the year 2025, said the UN had verified thirteen instances of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel’s armed forces in 2025, in addition to eighteen cases in 2023 and 2024.

The victims were said to include 14 men, seven women, nine boys and one girl, all from Gaza and the West Bank.