Overview
- Guy Gilboa-Dalal publicly recounted detailed sexual assaults he says he suffered in Gaza during a conversation with Israel’s first lady in mid-June, saying he was blindfolded, stripped and threatened with a knife and a gun to keep silent.
- He says the abuse occurred in two separate attacks after he was taken from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, and that he spent roughly 739 days in captivity in a tunnel network beneath Gaza.
- Gilboa-Dalal directly criticized the U.N. for saying it was unable to verify some public hostage allegations and said survivors’ firsthand accounts should not be dismissed by outside investigators.
- At least six other released hostages have publicly reported sexual violence while in captivity, a pattern that Hamas denies and that U.N. investigators say is hard to fully verify because of limited access and wartime conditions.
- Gilboa-Dalal says he is using his story to help other victims, is writing a book and an anime script, and his testimony could increase pressure on governments and rights bodies to improve verification, support services and accountability efforts.