Ex-hostage to U.N. 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. 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?’..."