A man who survived the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival in Israel has shared a harrowing account of his experience, alleging he was raped by terrorists. The survivor, identified only as “D” due to his fear of retaliation, is the first man to publicly detail the sexual assaults he and other men endured during the October 7 attack.
D recounted the horrifying experience, stating, “They pin you to the ground, you try to resist, they take off your clothes, laugh at you, humiliate you, spit at you. They touched (private) parts, they rape you.” He described the chilling scene, noting the terrorists’ “celebrating and laughing” while surrounded by the dead and injured.
He explained the confusion and fear he experienced: “There is a circle, (people) laugh, and you don’t know what to do in the moment, whether you should resist or let it pass, how to deal with the situation. There was a very difficult rape.”
D said the assault left him deeply traumatized, leading to an obsessive focus on cleanliness as a way to cope with the experience. “I take a lot, a lot of showers, to get all that energy off me, everything that happened,” he said.
The testimony of D and other survivors is being collected by Israeli police as part of a lawsuit filed by over 100 survivors seeking over $137 million in government support. The lawsuit highlights the lasting trauma experienced by survivors, many of whom struggle to return to their normal lives.
This case echoes findings from a United Nations report on sexual violence in conflict, which concluded that credible allegations exist of conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, during the October 7 attacks in multiple locations across the Gaza periphery. The report also highlighted evidence suggesting that Hamas hostages were subjected to rape, and those still held continue to face such abuse.
