Gruesome details of rapes and executions of women by Hamas in Israel

At first, she was known simply as “the woman in the black dress.”

In a blurry video, she can be seen lying on her back, with her dress torn, her legs open and her vagina exposed. His face is burned beyond recognition and his right hand covers his eyes.

The video was filmed early on October 8 by a woman searching for a missing friend at the site of a rave party in southern Israel where, the day before, Hamas terrorists massacred hundreds of young Israelis.

The video went viral and thousands of people responded, desperate to know if the woman in the black dress was their missing friend, sister or daughter.

One family knew who she was: Gal Abdush, a mother of two from a working-class town in central Israel, who disappeared from the rave with her husband.

As the terrorists approached her, trapped on a highway in a line of cars of people trying to flee, she sent one last WhatsApp message to her family: “They don't understand.”

Largely based on video evidence — verified by The New York Times — Israeli police officials said they believe Abdush was raped. It has become a symbol of the horrors that Israeli women and young people suffered on October 7.

Israeli officials say that everywhere Hamas terrorists struck that day — the rave, military bases along the Gaza Strip border, and kibbutzim — they brutalized the women.

Based on videos, photographs, mobile phone GPS data and interviews with more than 150 people, The Times has identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and young girls appear to have been sexually assaulted or mutilated on October 7.

Four witnesses described in graphic detail seeing women raped and murdered in two locations along Route 232the road where Abdush's half-naked body was found lying on the road in a third place.

And several soldiers and medical volunteers together described finding more than 30 bodies of women and young people in and around the rave site and in two kibbutzim with their legs spread, stripped of clothing, and with signs of abuse in their genital areas.

Hamas has denied Israel's accusations of sexual violence. Israeli activists have been outraged that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and UN Women did not acknowledge the allegations until weeks after the attacks.

Investigators from Lahav 433, the main unit of Israel's national police, have been gathering evidence but have not given a figure on how many women were raped, saying most are dead — and buried — and will never know. Neither survivor has spoken publicly.

A combination of chaos, grief, and Jewish religious duties caused many bodies to be buried as quickly as possible. Most were never examined and, in some cases, such as at the rave scene, where more than 360 people were massacred in a few hours, the bodies were removed in trucks. This has left Israeli authorities unable to fully explain to families what happened to their loved ones. Abdush's relatives never received a death certificate. They are still looking for answers.

Sapir, a 24-year-old accountant, has become one of the Israeli police's key witnesses. She does not want to be fully identified.

She attended the rave with several friends. In an interview, she recounted seeing groups of heavily armed men rape and kill at least five women. She said that at 8:00 a.m. on October 7, she was hiding under a tamarisk tree, just off Route 232, about four and a half miles southwest of the party. She had been shot in the back. She felt weak. She covered herself with grass and stayed as still as possible.

About 15 meters from his hiding place, he said, he saw “about 100 men” getting in and out of vehicles. He said the men passed each other assault rifles, grenades, small missiles — and seriously wounded women. The first victim he said he saw was a young woman with blood running down her back and pants down to her knees. A man grabbed her hair and forced her to bend over. Another of hers penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched from him, he plunged a knife into her back.

He said he then saw another woman “being torn apart.” While one terrorist raped her, she said, another one pulled a box cutter from her and cut off her breast.

He said he saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three other women.

Sapir provided photographs of his hiding place and his injuries. Police officers have backed up her testimony and released a video of her, with her face blurred, recounting what he saw.

That same morning, along Route 232, about a mile southwest of the party area, Raz Cohen — a young Israeli who had attended the rave — said he was hiding in a dry creek bed.

About 35 meters in front of him, he recalled, a white van stopped. He said he then saw five men, all with knives and one with a hammer, dragging a woman across the ground. She was young, and she was naked and screaming.

“They start raping her,” Cohen said. “I saw the men standing in a semicircle around him. One penetrates her. She screams. I still remember her voice, wordless screams.

“Then one of them picks up a knife and they just slaughtered her.”

Hours later, the first wave of volunteer emergency medical technicians arrived. Four of them said they discovered bodies of women with their legs spread and no underwear — some with their hands tied with ropes — in the party area, along the road, in the parking lot area and in the surrounding fields. from the rave place.

Similar discoveries were made at two kibbutzim, Be'eri and Kfar Aza. Eight volunteer doctors and two Israeli soldiers said that in At least six different houses had found a total of at least 24 bodies of naked or semi-naked women and girls, some mutilated, others tied, and often alone.

A week after Abdush's body was found, three government social workers showed up at the family's home in Kiryat Ekron. They broke the news that Abdush, 34, had been found dead.

But the only document the family received was a one-page macho letter from Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, expressing his condolences and sending them a hug. The body of Abdush's husband, Nagi, 35, was identified two days after that of his wife. He was badly burned and investigators determined who he was based on a DNA sample and her wedding band.

Their sons, Eliav, 10, and Refael, 7, are now orphans. Abdush's mother and father have filed for permanent custody.

Night after night, Abdush's mother, Eti Bracha, lies in bed with the children until they fall asleep. A few weeks ago, she said she tried to quietly leave her room wh
en her youngest child stopped her.

“Grandma,” he said, “I want to ask you a question.”

“Honey, you can ask anything,” he told her.

“Grandma, how did mom die?”

JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, ANAT SCHWARTZ AND ADAM SELLA. THE NEW YORK TIMES