Released Israeli hostage Sasha Troufanov told the BBC that he was sexually harassed in Hamas captivity.
In his first international interview, Troufanov described being locked in a cage for more than six weeks and given barely enough food to survive. He said he was sexually harassed by a guard, who tried to make him perform sexual acts, and that a hidden camera filmed him while he showered once a week.
35-year-old Troufanov and his fiancée Sapir Cohen, who was also taken hostage and released after 55 days in captivity, had been visiting his family on Kibbutz Nir Oz when Palestinian gunmen stormed their homes. His mother and grandmother were also taken hostage, and his father was killed.
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Kibbutz Nir Oz after October 7. Credit: Hadas Parush
Kibbutz Nir Oz after October 7. Credit: Hadas ParushRelated Articles
When Palestinian gunmen broke into their home, Troufanov said he was stabbed in the shoulder. “I saw the terrorist with so much anger and hate in his face, holding his knife trying to stab me even more,” he told the BBC. He tried to escape when the attackers took him off the kibbutz, but could not keep running and was shot twice in each leg.
“I just felt the rush of pain going through my brain and I fell to the ground then one of the terrorists hit me with the rifle from the back of my head and split it open.”
After he crossed the border into Gaza, he said he was beaten by civilians and thought, “This is the moment you’re going to die.”
He said he was held in almost complete isolation, and only saw another hostage on two of the 498 days he was held captive.
He told the BBC he received insufficient medical attention, and that his broken leg was wrapped first with a wooden broom, and then with a metal grill part.
Once he was taken underground, Troufanov said he was left for months alone in a small, silent, humid dark space in the tunnels, where he could not even see his own hand.
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Sasha Troufanov in August 2025. Credit: Uriel Even Sapir
Sasha Troufanov in August 2025. Credit: Uriel Even Sapir
“I remember feeling that I am buried underneath the ground while I am still alive. I was losing it. I was having a hard time to find hope in this place. Many times I lost hope completely. I said to myself: ‘This is the last place you will see alive.'”
Troufanov told the BBC that he believes the current cease-fire measures and plans for a postwar Gaza are insufficient. “Rebuilding Gaza and opening the Rafah crossing is in vain as it will never solve the real problem. We need to find a way to make this hatred and encouragement of terrorist activity stop.”
“Rebuilding Gaza, after what happened in the war, is understandable. But first of all we need to make sure that the people of Gaza will stop trying to hurt Israel,” he said. “The terrorists were telling me: ‘We will do this again and again.'”
He told the BBC that with the return of the final deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, earlier this week, all the released hostages can “now breathe and start our lives again.”
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Three hostages held in Gaza, from left, Sagui Dekel Chen, Iair Horn and Sasha Troufanov, are escorted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters as they are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, in February 2025. Credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Three hostages held in Gaza, from left, Sagui Dekel Chen, Iair Horn and Sasha Troufanov, are escorted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters as they are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, in February 2025. Credit: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Other released hostages testified to sexual assaults they experienced in captivity or witnessed. In December, former hostage Romi Gonen said in an interview with Channel 12’s “Uvda” show that she was sexually assaulted several times by various men and “to varying degrees of severity.”
In November, Guy Gilboa-Dalal testified in an interview with Channel 12 that he was sexually assaulted by one of his captors. “He started touching me all over, I froze,” he said. Earlier that month, Rom Braslavski was interviewed by Channel 13, where he recounted the humiliation and sexual abuse he endured at the hands of his captors.