Guy Gilboa Dalal, who was freed last month in the latest hostage deal after being held in Gaza for two years, said in a television interview on Wednesday that he was sexually assaulted during his captivity.
Speaking with Channel 12 News, Gilboa Dalal recounted a harrowing incident, saying one of his captors allowed him to shower, then dragged him out without letting him get dressed. “He took me back to their room and threw me onto one of their armchairs,” he said.
“He started touching me all over my body. I froze and told him, ‘You’re joking, right? This is forbidden in Islam.’ He put a gun to my head and a knife to my throat and told me that if I told anyone, he would kill me.”
Gilboa Dalal's testimony adds to growing accounts of mistreatment reported by former captives held in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, hostage survivor Rom Braslavski also revealed that he was sexually assaulted during the 738 days he was held in Gaza. “No one went through what I went through. They stripped me of all my clothes — underwear, everything. They tied me up from my... while I was completely naked. I was torn apart, dying, with no food,” said the former hostage in a televised interview.
“It was sexual violence — and its main purpose was to humiliate me,” Braslavski said. “The goal was to crush my dignity. And that's exactly what he did.” The interviewer asked whether there had been other incidents besides the one he described, and Braslavski replied: “Yes. It's hard for me to talk about that part specifically. I don't like to talk about it. It's hard, It was the most horrific thing. It's something even the Nazis didn't do. During Hitler's time, they wouldn't have done things like this. You just pray for it to stop. And while I was there — every day, every beating — I'd say to myself, 'I survived another day in hell. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up to another hell. And another. And another. It doesn't end.”
Former hostage Rom Braslavski reveals that he was sexually assaulted in captivity
(Video: Hazinor)
Last week, former hostages Aviva and Keith Siegel testified before the United Nations about the horrors they experienced in captivity. Aviva recounted one case of a young girl forced to shower with a terrorist and then perform oral sex on him. Additionally, she described a 16‑year‑old girl who was forced to shower in front of a terrorist. “She’s 16 years old,” Aviva said with a broken voice, “she has never ever shown anyone her body. A Hamas terrorist just stood there, stared at her and smiled.”
She added: "My worst times as a human being was to see how they tortured my husband Keith and what they did to the girls, and I wasn't even allowed to hug, I wasn't allowed to help, I wasn't allowed to cry, I wasn't allowed to move. But I want to say that I tried so badly to be a person.... I used to give them love through my eyes."