Teen ex-hostage says Hamas captor would touch her, tell her he wanted to marry her
Dafna Elyakim opens up about sexual abuse she endured during captivity, says terrorist guard would threaten to keep her behind in Gaza after everyone else was released
Former hostage Dafna Elyakim opened up on Tuesday about the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of one of her Hamas captors during the duration of her captivity in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, onslaught.
Elyakim, then 15 years old, was abducted from her father’s house in Kibbutz Nahal Oz along with her younger sister, Ela Elyakim, then aged 8. The two were released on November 26, 2023, during a weeklong truce brokered by Qatar and the United States.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Civil Advocacy Center’s TEEN SPIRIT conference, the older Elyakim sister shared for the first time that one of her captors would touch her inappropriately, and had even threatened to keep her in Gaza to marry her.
“We had one guard with us, one of the terrorists, who would touch me all the time, or tell me that I was going to stay there, that they would return Ela and everyone else, and only I would stay behind with him, and that we were going to have children together, and a house and all that,” she said.
“He would always tell me that he was coming with me to shower,” Elyakim continued, adding, however, that the threat never materialized.
Several other released hostages have previously spoken publicly about the sexual abuse they endured during their captivity.
In March 2024, Amit Soussana became the first freed hostage to open up about her ordeal when she told The New York Times that she had been sexually assaulted at gunpoint and attacked by her guard, who forced her to “commit a sexual act on him.”
Then, in March of this year, survivor Ilana Gritzewsky told The Times that she was sexually assaulted during her abduction to Gaza from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and that her first memory from the Strip was waking up half-naked, surrounded by gunmen.
Like Elyakim, Gritzewsky said one of her captors would tell her that she wouldn’t be released in a hostage deal because he wanted to marry her and have children.
Israel has accused international women’s groups of failing to condemn sexual violence by Hamas. Former captives and survivors of the October 7 onslaught have reported being sexually assaulted by terrorists and of witnessing extreme acts of sexual violence against people who were eventually killed.
In January 2024, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, led a research mission to Israel in which she found “clear and convincing” evidence of sexual violence both during the shock onslaught and against the hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.