Former hostage Rom Braslavski speaks out about his sexual abuse in Hamas captivity

Former hostage Rom Braslavski opened up on an interview with Channel 13 about his time in Gaza captivity and the abuse and sexual assults he was put through by his Jihadist captives.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog reacted to the interview, praising Braslavski for his courage to speak about what he endured, "reminding the world that it must not turn away from the truth."

'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,' he said. 

"I prayed to God, 'Please, save me, get me out of this already.' And you just say to yourself, 'What the f***?'"

Rom Braslavski, 21, was violently abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023 while working as a security guard at the Nova music festival.

He was held captive for more than two years in brutal conditions and was released in October as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that freed all of the remaining living hostages in Gaza. 

"Rom Braslavski showed extraordinary courage in sharing the horrors of his captivity, including a horrific sexual assault he endured while held by Islamic Jihad terrorists. His trembling voice, heard tonight in Israel and around the world, breaks through the walls of silence and denial, reminding the world that it must not turn away from the truth," Herzog wrote. 

"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 it did."

"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,'" Braslavski testified. 

"The world must understand the scale of the crimes committed by the terrorists in Gaza, heinous cruelty, sexual violence, and abuse. We saw this methodical, deliberate evil in the massacre of October 7, and we have heard more and more harrowing testimonies from those who returned from captivity. These were not isolated acts of terror, but planned, systematic crimes committed by monsters against the innocent," Herzog added.