Freed Gaza hostage bares sexual assault by captor

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Guy Gilboa-Dalal, an Israeli hostage released last month after more than two years in captivity, said in a television interview that he was sexually assaulted in captivity in Gaza.

He is the first man to state publicly that he was sexually assaulted while being held hostage by Hamas.

In an excerpt from the interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, due to air on Friday, Gilboa-Dalal recounted the assault.

"He let me take a shower, and when I finished taking a shower, he dragged me out of the bathroom. He would not let me put my clothes back on," the 24-year-old said.

"He took me back to their room and then he threw me onto one of the armchairs.

"He started touching me all over my body and I froze.

"I told him, 'you're joking, right? This is forbidden in Islam.'

"He held a rifle to my head and a knife to my throat and told me that if I told anyone, he would kill me."

Asked if it was an isolated incident, Gilboa-Dalal said no, but did not wish to elaborate further.

Gilboa-Dalal was kidnapped along with his friend Evyatar David at the Nova music festival on 7 October, 2023 during Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

He was seen with David in February 2025 in a Hamas video, watching one of the hostage release ceremonies in Gaza from inside a vehicle, pleading to be freed.

Gilboa-Dalal was released along with the 19 other surviving hostages under the terms of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which came into effect on 10 October.

Gilboa-Dalal and David were both freed on 13 October.

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told journalists on Thursday: "The courageous testimonies of our released living hostages is painstaking and heartbreaking to hear, but it sheds a light on the wickedness our people endured for two years in hell in Hamas captivity."

In March 2024 in an interview with The New York Times newspaper, Amit Soussana became the first hostage to testify publicly that she had been sexually abused by one of her captors.

Former hostage Aviva Siegel testified last week in Geneva before the United Nations Committee Against Torture that during her captivity, one young woman returned from the bathroom shaking.