Israeli sexual assault survivors share their traumatic experiences in a powerful documentary exposing abuse by Hamas
Several Israeli survivors, including former hostages, recounting their traumatic ordeals at the hands of Hamas in the documentary “Screams Before Silence,” shedding light on sexual and physical abuse. Despite doubts, the film highlights the atrocities faced by hostages, triggering discussions on the need for action against such violence. The struggle for their release continues amid international efforts.
Several Israeli survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks, including former hostages, first responders, and witnesses, are detailing their horrifying experiences at the hands of Hamas in a new documentary.
“Your body is simply open to everyone,” Agam Goldstein-Almog, one of the Israeli hostages who was released in November after being held captive by Hamas for about seven weeks, said in a new documentary.
Goldstein-Almog, who was 17 years old on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas militants stormed into Israel and carried out a massacre leaving roughly 1,200 people dead, estimated that roughly half of the approximately 250 people taken hostage have been sexually and physically abused.
The documentary, released a couple of days ago, is titled Screams Before Silence and is available on YouTube. The hourlong film, a project from former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, includes testimonials from former hostages who were released during the weeklong ceasefire in November, first responders, and witnesses who survived the attack.
Goldstein-Almog was kidnapped from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with her mother Chen and two of her sisters, Tal, 11, and Gal, who was 9 years old at the time. Chen’s husband and the children’s father, Nadav Goldstein-Almog, was killed on Oct. 7 in the safe room of their home. Hamas also fatally shot their eldest child, Yam.
In the documentary, Agam and her mother Chen return to their home with Sandberg, who asks them to walk her through what happened on that day. As they stood in their safe room, which now includes several bullet holes, they described the murder of Nadav in front of them.
“They came in and shot Dad right away,” Agam said. “I saw him taking his last breaths, his arms were up, and, like, just a second before that, he’d been sitting here, and I didn’t say goodbye to him or hug him or kiss him.”
There have been some doubters about the claims of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and other militants who carried out the massacre, which in part prompted the documentary itself.
“After Oct. 7, the reports were coming out about not just mass murder, but mass sexual violence. And the usual people who should be speaking out were either ignoring it or denying it. And that’s not OK,” Sandberg said in a recent Fox News interview about the documentary.
Amit Soussana was the first released hostage to reveal she was sexually assaulted while being held captive. She said one of the men involved in guarding her forced her to commit a sexual act on him at gunpoint.
“He started touching me, and I resisted, and then he dragged me to the bedroom, and then he forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” Soussana said. “And I remember, the entire time, I was thinking: ‘Amit, OK, you knew it’s going to happen. It’s really happening.’ I said to myself: ‘OK, you can handle this. You just want to survive.’”
Agam, describing the terror of being held by Hamas, added, “They can wake you up in the middle of the night and rape you, and the whole time, a gun is pointed at your head. … And they’re still there, still living with their rapists.”
There are believed to be roughly 130 people who continue to be held by Hamas or other terrorist groups in Gaza. While several outside countries continue to pursue another ceasefire deal that would secure the hostages’ release, an agreement has eluded all sides since the conclusion of the one back in late November.
A United Nations report from the U.N. envoy for sexual violence said investigators had “clear and convincing information” that the hostages had been the victims of rape, sexualized torture, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and the investigators have “reasonable grounds” to believe this could be continuing.
The report also noted that victims, mainly women, were found “fully or partially naked, bound, and shot,” and they discovered “reasonable grounds” to believe some victims were raped or gang-raped during the attack. Sexual violence was discovered in multiple locations, demonstrating the possibility that it was a part of their plan and not a one-off incident.
Several people interviewed in the film were at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7. Hamas militants stormed the concert, opened fire, chased down Israelis running for safety, and committed sexual violence, according to those witnesses. Hundreds of the victims were killed at the festival.
“When I heard someone scream and then silence, I knew that it’s probably someone gets shot,” Tali Binner, who hid in a trailer at the festival for about seven hours, said. “But when you hear this chaos for 20 minutes … you understand something else much worse is happening right over there.”
Binner went back to the trailer she hid in for hours during the film and shared what she was feeling as she feared for her life.
“There were so many noises of women. A girl started to yell for a long time, ‘Please stop, stop, stop.’ And it doesn’t stop,” Binner said to Sandberg. “I’m starting to calculate, what’s worse: to get kidnapped, to be raped, to get shot? What’s worse? What’s better?”
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Michal Ohana attended the festival and was shot in the leg as she ran for her life. As she and Sandberg revisited the site of the festival, an apparent militant rocket attack occurred, and the loud noise from it sent her into a panic.
Rami Davidian, a first responder at the concert, said he found “girls tied up with their hands behind them to every tree,” adding, “their legs were spread. … Someone stripped them. Someone raped them. They inserted all kinds of things into their intimate organs.”
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