Israeli hostage’s intercourse assault horror as kidnappers ‘did issues even the Nazis would not do’
A security guard kidnapped during the Hamas-led atrocity on October 7, 2023, has told how his kidnappers used sexual violence to torture him as he spoke for the first time since his release
An Israeli hostage abducted by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks was sexually assaulted and tortured by his kidnappers, he has revealed. Rom Braslavski, 21, was violently abducted by terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Speaking for the first time about his ordeal since being freed as part of a ceasefire deal, he revealed he suffered sexual violence at the hands of his captors who stripped him naked and beat him. He said: “It’s something even the Nazis didn’t do.”
Rom was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when Hamas, along with other militant groups, stormed into Israel during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, killing 1,175 people in the atrocity, dubbed “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust”.
In a televised interview, Rom told how he was tied up and starved during his hostage hell inside Gaza. He told Israel’s Channel 13 programme Hazinor: “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. I prayed to God, ‘Please, save me, get me out of this already.’ And you just say to yourself, ‘What the f***?’
“It was sexual violence — and its main purpose was to humiliate me. The goal was to crush my dignity. And that’s exactly what he did. 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. I came back from meeting the devil.”
Rom was one of 251 people kidnapped during the incursion into Israeli territory, which also saw villages near the border with with Gaza raided by Hamas-led operatives who killed civilians and burnt down homes.
He was abducted when trying to save an injured person during the rampaging attack. His family authorised the release of parts of a video distributed by Islamic Jihad, showing him emaciated, tortured, unable to stand and begging for his life.
His mum Tami, who campaigned tirelessly across the world for his release, said her son was tempted with food to convert to Islam but refused, holding on to his Jewish identity.
In August this year, a video showed him crying, saying he had run out of food and water, unable to stand. And he was pictured draped in the Israeli flag as he greeted members of the IDF upon his release last month.
He has become the first male hostage to tell of sexual abuse during his time in captivity. Female hostages such as Amit Soussana and Ilana Gritzewsky have bravely spoken of sexual assault at the hands of their kidnappers.
Ilana, who testified before the UN Security Council, described being held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, saying: “On the way to Gaza, when they started to touch me and sexually abuse me, I passed out physically and mentally. I couldn’t handle it anymore.”
Israel’s retaliatory campaign killed nearly 69,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Rom’s full interview will air on Israel’s Channel 13 on Thursday night.
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