One of the last hostages freed from Gaza has broken his silence—delivering a shocking and deeply personal testimony of sexual violence, torture, and degradation during captivity at the hands of terrorist forces.
Rom Braslavski, now 21, was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Hamas‑led assault erupted and he was taken captive. After more than two years in captivity, he was released last month along with the final group of living hostages under a US-brokered truce.
In excerpts of an upcoming interview with Israel’s Channel 13 News, Braslavski disclosed that his captors from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad stripped him completely naked, bound him, deprived him of food, and repeatedly abused him with the explicit aim to humiliate.
“They stripped me of all my clothes—underwear, everything. They tied me up… while I was completely naked. I was torn apart, dying, with no food,” he said. “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.”
Braslavski described the daily cycle of violence and terror he endured: “I survived another day in hell. Tomorrow morning I’ll wake up to another hell. And another. And another. It doesn’t end.”
His mother, Tami Braslavski, had earlier revealed that he was held in isolation for nearly two years and was offered better treatment if he agreed to convert to Islam—an offer he refused.
Tami Braslavski, mother of released Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, speaks to press at Sheba Medical Center, October 15, 2025. Photo by Jonatan Shaul/Flash90
This testimony appears to mark the first public account by a male former Israeli hostage of sexual assault during captivity in Gaza. The Israeli government has repeatedly documented and condemned sexual violence committed by terrorist groups against Israelis, both before and after October 7.
In response, President Isaac Herzog praised Braslavski’s courage: “The world must not turn away from the truth,” he said, underlining that these were not isolated acts, but systematic crimes.
Braslavski’s story is pivotal not only for its horror, but for how it reframes the broader picture: The war’s consequences extend beyond battlefield casualties and hostage swaps to include unspeakable violence against the most vulnerable.
For Israel, this reinforces the moral certainty underlying its ongoing operations and diplomatic strategy: that it cannot accept a future in which terrorist groups remain armed, freed to commit atrocity after atrocity.
See: Israel draws the line: No peace without Hamas disarmament
Analysis: The testimony of Rom Braslavski tears away any veneer of ambiguity. This was not random cruelty: it was instrumental. Designed to terrorize, degrade, and break a hostage—not simply hold him for ransom. And that changes the calculus.
Israel’s narrative—that this war is existential, that its enemy seeks not just to kill but to annihilate—has just been confirmed by one of the very survivors of that horror.
The silence must end. The world must listen.
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