A young woman held captive by Hamas for more than a year has bravely shared her harrowing experience of repeated sexual assaults while in captivity. Romi Gonen, 25, was taken hostage during the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and has recounted her fears of being made a “sex slave” by her captors. After enduring 471 days of trauma, she recently broke her silence in an interview with CNN.
Gonen described the psychological and physical torment she faced, revealing that her first assault occurred just days after her abduction. For the initial 34 days, she was held in solitary confinement, seeing only her captors, including a self-proclaimed medic who assaulted her under the guise of treatment. “He was a ‘nurse’ so he allowed himself to ‘help me.’ I was wounded, powerless, and couldn’t do anything,” she stated.
The brutality continued as two men, identified as Ibrahim and Mohammed, harassed her for a continuous 16-day stretch. “I’m sitting on the bed. Ibrahim comes and sits next to me and harasses me. Everything is in complete silence. I start crying insanely, and he says, ‘Be careful. If you don’t calm down, I’ll get angry,’” Gonen recounted, illustrating the terror that permeated her daily life.
In another chilling incident, she was forced into a bathroom by one of her captors, further exemplifying the relentless abuse. “I was crying like crazy, and he was having the time of his life, ecstatic, as if he had received the gift of a lifetime,” she said. Gonen reflected on the despair of thinking she would remain a prisoner of violence, stating, “Everyone in Israel thinks you’re dead, and you’re going to be his sex slave for life.”
As the abuse escalated, senior Hamas commanders eventually took notice. Gonen recalled being led through a tunnel to speak with Izz a Din al-Haddad, then head of the Hamas Gaza Brigade. She claims he offered her a deal: she would be prioritized for release in exchange for her silence about the abuse she endured.
“They often silenced my story and told me not to tell it. Now I am here, sitting in front of the camera, and honestly, no one will silence me anymore,” Gonen declared, emphasizing her resilience in the face of her trauma. “It happened to me, and it was terrible, and I deal with the consequences every day, but I am here. I beat it. I am in the aftermath, and I am much stronger than it.”
Gonen’s testimony aligns with a report by the Dinah Project, which indicated that thirteen other women and two men experienced or witnessed similar instances of sexual violence while being held hostage in Gaza. The report, released in July 2025, sheds light on the widespread nature of abuse faced by hostages during their captivity.
As Gonen continues to speak out, her story serves as a powerful reminder of the horrors faced by those held captive in conflict zones.
