Ex-Hostage Reveals Gruesome Stockholm Syndrome Experience

Warning: This text contains disturbing depictions of violence. Please keep this in mind before reading and towards minors.

She looked outside through a small window, saw the blue sky, heard birds chirping. But she was trapped – “here in this bathroom, this dirt, this brutality, this disgust.” They are shocking words from former Israeli Hamas hostage Romi Gonen. On Thursday evening, almost a year after her release, she spoke about the horror she experienced in Gaza. In the interview for the Israeli TV channel Channel 12, she reported how she had been sexually abused to varying degrees by several terrorists.

Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas massacre in which more than 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were kidnapped. The 25-year-old woman spoke publicly for the first time about her personal fate on Channel 12’s “Uvda” program. On January 19, 2025, the young Israeli returned home as part of a ceasefire and hostage agreement after 471 days in captivity.

»The question that everyone thinks about is: Have you been sexually abused? But nobody says it because nobody wants to hear the answer,” she said, disclosing four cases of sexual abuse by different men of varying degrees of severity. The third attack was the worst.

A nurse in Gaza abused her

On the fourth day in Gaza after her abduction, she was the victim of sexual violence – at the hands of a nurse. “I went to take a shower and he came with me because he was supposed to help me. I was injured and had no strength. I was in a situation where I couldn’t do anything. He took everything from me.”

She was later held in an apartment by two Hamas kidnappers: Mohammed and the younger Ibrahim. Gonen described Mohammed’s first attack as follows: »Suddenly I felt him massaging my back. His hand then moved to my waist. I stopped him, said, ‘Stop touching me,’ pushed his hand away. Then I stood up and shouted, ‘Don’t touch me anymore.'”

The next morning the situation worsened further. “He said it wouldn’t happen again and explained, ‘From now on we’ll sleep pressed together. If you go to the bathroom, I’ll go with you. Every night I’m going to handcuff you to me.’” That’s how her time in this house began, Gonen said.

The worst moment came a little later. “It lasted almost half an hour.” She woke up with Mohammed and Ibrahim standing over her and talking to each other. Hamas ordered them to be killed, Mohammed said. He then added that there was a way to keep them alive – but they would have to flee the apartment.

Romi Gonen: »Fear paralyzes you. I was frozen. All I was left with was fear, disgust – and this one question: Why?”

»Then he ordered me to go to the bathroom and wash myself at the sink because he didn’t know when the next time would be possible. I cried uncontrollably and he was in seventh heaven.” At that moment she looked outside through the small window. »The sky was blue, everything was normal. And I thought: This is my reality. This contrast – the beauty outside and the dirt, the brutality in here – I will never forget it.

Unless you are in such a situation, you cannot understand what is happening to your body. »Fear paralyzes you. I was frozen. All I was left with was fear, disgust – and this one question: Why?”

Then a ringing started in her ears, she couldn’t hear anything and thought she was going to faint, the shock was so great. “I thought: ‘Everyone in Israel thinks you’re dead – and you’re here, trapped as a sex slave.'” Mohammed later threatened her with a gun and made it clear: “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you.”

The terrorist brought a pregnancy test

Both terrorists repeatedly asked her about her sex life. To protect herself, she invented a husband. “I named him Yarden.” When her period stopped, “we all panicked,” Gonen reported with disturbing clarity. “My biggest fear was that something had been done to me.” Mohammed finally brought a pregnancy test. “It was negative.”

Gonen said the harassment continued throughout her time in the apartment. »I sat on the bed, Ibrahim sat next to me and groped me. Everything happened in absolute silence in the room. I started crying uncontrollably and he threatened: ‘Watch out – if you don’t calm down, I’ll get angry.’” The days went by like that. »I went into the bathroom, Mohammed came with me and watched me. I sat on the bed, Ibrahim was there. They were by far the worst 16 days of my captivity.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised Gonen’s decision to go public as an “act of extraordinary courage.” Her statement makes “the cruelty and moral depravity of Hamas” visible. At the same time, it draws attention to a topic that many former hostages could hardly talk about: sexual violence.

Men were also victims of sexual violence

There are also formerly abducted men who have publicly stated that they were victims of sexual abuse. Among them are Alon Ohel and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, both of whom reported attacks by guards. The collected statements underscore that the sexual abuse perpetrated by Hamas was systematic and not random.

Medical professionals who treat returned hostages also report that many of them show signs of severe trauma suggestive of sexual abuse, even if they are unable or unwilling to describe it in detail.

Gonen’s decision to do so, despite the personal burden, is considered a turning point. Human rights and women’s organizations say her statement reinforces calls for international investigations into the war crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 massacres and in their aftermath.

For the young Israeli, the motivation is clear: “I’m speaking because what happened to us cannot be denied and must never be forgotten.”