Court convicts four in 2020 Eilat gang rape, seven more guilty of aiding assault

A Beersheba court has convicted four people of rape over an incident in which a young woman said she was sexually assaulted by a group of men while vacationing in Eilat in 2020.

The four, including Issy Raphaelov, 31 and Eliezer Meirav, 30, as well as two minors, both aged 17, are convicted of rape, sexual assault, gang rape and a host of other crimes against the victim, who was 16 at the time.

Another seven people, many of them minors, are convicted of aiding the assault, failing to stop the act, and other charges.

Eilat’s Red Sea Hotel, where an alleged gang rape took place in mid-August 2020. (Channel 12 screenshot)

The case shocked the country and spurred calls for reforms, as testimony indicated that a large group of men lined up outside the intoxicated girl’s hotel room, waiting their turn to rape her, as eyewitnesses failed to intervene.

Judges in the case hail the victim, who watched the verdict from a separate room according to Ynet, for her testimony in the case.

“Your voice, which was muffled in room 216, was heard well and echoed through the halls of the court,” she is told.