Harrowing Testimony Reveals Chilling Details of Woman's Violent Assault and Murder in Israel on October 7
Israeli police investigate cases of rape and sexual violence amidst the Hamas attack on Israel A witness shares a harrowing account of the horrifying incident, shedding light on the heinous acts committed by the attackers
Warning: The following story includes explicit and distressing descriptions of sexual violence.
A survivor of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, Raz Cohen, shared horrifying details of the attack. He recounted how a group of men abducted a woman, undressed her, and sexually assaulted her before ultimately killing her.
Cohen went to the Nova music festival in the desert of southern Israel to be with his girlfriend Maya. Tragically, she was killed while trying to flee with a friend. Cohen also witnessed another young woman being shot in the head as he hid in a bush, where he witnessed a rape.
Hamas fighters attacked the music festival and nearby kibbutz communities near the border, resulting in numerous cases of rape and sexual violence documented by Israeli police. These attacks led to more than 1,200 deaths and over 200 hostages, prompting a strong Israeli military response. The subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza has led to the deaths of over 22,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, and has been condemned globally.
The reports of rape and mutilation against Israelis, primarily targeting girls and women but also men, were initially slow to be condemned by the United Nations and human rights organizations. Hamas has denied its fighters' involvement in sexual violence during the coordinated attacks. In December, the UN agency UN Women released a statement condemning the attacks and expressing alarm at the numerous accounts of gender-based atrocities and sexual violence.
Festival-goers' personal items are visible at the location where the Nova festival was targeted by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, near the Israel-Gaza border. This image was captured in the days following the attack.
Ronen Zvulun/Reuters/File
"Its a fact," Cohen said. "Its what happened."
Cohen reported that a white van parked approximately 30 meters from where he was hiding, and five men in civilian clothing exited the vehicle. According to Cohen, they caught a girl and began forcibly removing her clothes. After stripping her, one of the men proceeded to rape her for about 40 seconds. Following the assault, he took a knife and murdered her. Shockingly, he then continued to sexually assault the lifeless body.
The other men around the victim did not seem angry, Cohen said.
"They always laugh. I think it was for fun. They murdered a lot of people for fun."
Cohen was haunted by the memory of the woman's death, recalling her voice as "screams without words," alongside the sounds of apparent mirth, he told The New York Times.
CNN
Freed Israeli hostage says she endured psychological warfare during 50 days of Hamas captivity
Following the rape, Cohen informed CNN that he witnessed the group attacking another woman and a man, resulting in their deaths by knives and an ax.
CNN's ability to confirm Cohen's report is limited. However, a CNN investigation and the analysis of video and witness testimony from the Nova festival sheds light on the transformation of the rave into a scene of carnage.
Cohen, aged 24, fled across the open desert to evade the sudden influx of attackers. He likened the experience to being on a firing range - with no cover and bullets coming from multiple directions.
"I was running through the open field and came very close to a girl," he recounted. "As I passed her, I heard her fall to the ground. Looking back, I saw that she had been shot in the head. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't, so I kept running until I reached the safety of the bushes."
Cohen had to wait nine hours in the bush for rescuers to arrive, he said.
Raz Cohen had gone to the Nova music festival in the desert of southern Israel to be with his girlfriend.
CNN
In November, Israeli Police Superintendent Dudi Katz announced that over 1,000 statements and 60,000 video clips had been gathered in connection with the attacks, with numerous reports of women being raped. Although there were multiple accounts, there was no firsthand testimony and uncertainty about whether any rape victims had survived.
Rami Shmuel, a music festival organizer who was at the event attended by Cohen, stated that he witnessed female victims without clothing as he was trying to escape. He confidently described the scene, saying, "Their legs were spread out and some of them were butchered." This was reported to CNN.
A combat paramedic, who requested not to be named, confided to CNN that he discovered the bodies of two teenage girls in Kibbutz Beeri, and strongly suspected that at least one of them had been sexually assaulted.
He described the scene, saying, "Her pants were pulled down towards her knees and there was a bullet wound on the back of her neck near her head. There was a pool of blood around her head, and there were traces of semen on the lower part of her back."
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a human rights law expert at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has collaborated with colleagues to establish a civil commission dedicated to documenting evidence of the attacks. She emphasized the importance of ensuring that these atrocities are not ignored or forgotten, particularly since the victims are unable to advocate for themselves. "We will never fully comprehend the extent of what they endured," Elkayam-Levy stated in an interview with CNN in November. "It is known that many of the women who were raped or sexually assaulted were ultimately killed."
