Guy Gilboa-Dalal, an Israeli hostage who was freed on October 13 after more than two years, said in a television interview that he was sexually abused by his captors in Gaza. He was the first person to publicly testify about the sexual abuse he experienced while detained in Gaza.
“He let me shower, and when I finished showering, he pulled me out and wouldn’t let me wear my clothes.”the young man said in excerpts from an exclusive interview with Channel 12 broadcast Friday evening. “He took me back to their room then threw me on one of the chairs and started touching me everywhere.”he explained in a sequence broadcast on the channel’s website. “I told him “but it is forbidden in Islam»so he put a gun to my head and a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me if I talked about it.”added the former hostage.
When reporters asked him if it was just a single act, Guy Gilboa-Dalal said no, but added that he couldn’t talk about it.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, was kidnapped along with his best friend Evyatar David at the Nova techno party on October 7, 2023 during the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil, which sparked the Gaza War. He was seen with Evyatar David in February 2025 on a Hamas video, watching one of the hostage release ceremonies in Gaza before they were locked in a car, begging for release. He was released along with 19 other surviving hostages on October 7 following the announcement of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel on October 10.
While testifying in mid-November in Geneva before the UN Committee Against Torture, former hostage Aviva Siegel recounted the sexual violence committed against hostages while she was held hostage. Amit Soussana, in March 2024, became the first hostage to be revealed to the public, in an interview with New York Timeshad become a victim of sexual harassment by one of the prison guards.
In a report published in early 2024 at the end of the mission to Israel, when around a hundred surviving hostages were still being held in Gaza, the UN Secretary General’s special representative in charge of sexual violence committed during the conflict indicated that he had received, “based on direct testimony from the freed hostages (…) clear and convincing information shows that sexual violence, including rape, sexual torture (…was) committed against certain women and children while they were held hostage” in Gaza.
