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Israeli soldiers accompany Rom Braslavski, formerly held hostage in Gaza since October 2023 by Palestinian militants, upon his arrival at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre in Ramat Gan on October 13, 2025. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Tel Aviv (CNN) — A recently freed Israeli hostage has alleged he was subjected to “horrific” and humiliating sexual assault while held captive in Gaza.
Rom Braslavski, who was working as a security guard when he was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, said in an interview with Channel 13’s “Hazinor” that he was stripped naked and tied up while he was held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
He is the first male hostage to publicly allege he was sexually assaulted while in captivity.
“They stripped me of all my clothes, my underwear, everything. They tied me up from the …” Braslavski, 21, said, his voice trailing off without finishing his sentence. “When I was completely naked. I was wiped out, dying without food. And I prayed to God – save me, get me out of this already, and you just say to yourself like … what the hell is going on?”
Braslavski said it was “unequivocally” sexual assault.
“It is 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 said in the interview, which was filmed last week and shared with CNN. “It’s hard for me to talk about that part, specifically. I don’t like to talk about it.”
CNN has approached Palestinian Islamic Jihad for comment.
Braslavski was among the final 20 living hostages released last month after more than two years in captivity as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. He was held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group in Gaza allied with Hamas which also held Israeli hostages during the war.
The militants released footage of an emaciated Braslavski earlier this year, with his father saying he did not recognize his son. His mother told Israeli media he was allegedly pressured to convert to Islam in exchange for food.
“It’s hard. It was a horrific thing,” Braslavski said of his alleged sexual assault. “You just pray to God 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 hell. And another hell,” he said. “It doesn’t end.”
Other Israeli hostages alleged they were sexually assaulted or abused while in Hamas captivity, an allegation Hamas officials repeatedly denied. But until now, it had been only female hostages coming forward.
Amit Soussana, an Israeli hostage who was released after nearly two months in captivity, alleged she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint by her Hamas guard. She is one of more than a dozen former hostages who described experiencing or witnessing sexual violence while in captivity, according to a report compiled by the Dinal Project.
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten also published a report last year which alleges they found “clear and convincing” information that hostages in Gaza were sexually abused.
The-CNN-Wire
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