Elkayam-Levy, the commission\u2019s principal author, accepted responsibility for work so heartbreaking and disturbing \u2013 documenting crimes of extraordinary cruelty \u2013 that many on her team simply could not continue. For two and a half years, she sat with the evidence as well as with survivors, and reviewed testimony about the sexual crimes committed by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and thereafter.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most important takeaways is the before-and-after reality of the report,\u201d noted Danae Marx-Callaf, director of international communications and one of the four co-founders of the Civil Commission. \u201cOur report shifts the conversation from \u2018whether it happened\u2019 to \u2018what are the consequences.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother important thing is recognition of the victims. The report will go around the world to different policy makers and not remain just the knowledge of a few in the world,\u201d Marx-Callaf added.<\/p>\n
![\"Israeli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726189.jpeg\"\/)
Israeli women gaze at Nova victims poster. (credit: NIR LOTEM\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n
The comprehensive 298-page document details the sexual terror committed on and after Oct. 7, which the Civil Commission concluded was central to Hamas\u2019s war strategy.<\/p>\n
An expert in international law, human rights, and feminist legal theory, Elkayam-Levy serves as a Sophie Davis Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was a 2024 Israel Prize laureate for her tireless work on the report. For years, she taught and wrote about war crimes, gender-based violence, and the responsibility of legal systems to protect the vulnerable and pursue justice.<\/p>\n
But she never imagined that other highly committed women\u2019s advocates from other nations \u2013 the same people with whom she spent a career teaching and working \u2013 would abandon her after Oct. 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the days following the massacre, while Israel was still counting its dead, and families were searching for missing loved ones, Elkayam-Levy traveled to New York to address the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. There, she reported on the sexual atrocities that were being retrieved from both Hamas\u2019s and the victims\u2019 phones, from survivors\u2019 testimonies, and the accounts of those charged with the holy task of identifying the mangled corpses.<\/p>\n She arrived in New York expecting that evidence of the atrocities committed against women would command urgent international attention. Instead, she found herself surrounded by the UN Committee\u2019s apathy and hatred, as dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas activists came out to accuse Israel of genocide. The experience left a profound impression.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember feeling devastated,\u201d Elkayam-Levy told the Magazine in an interview at the commission\u2019s office in Modi\u2019in.<\/p>\n The silence was deafening<\/p>\n For a scholar of international law and human rights, that moment became a turning point. \u201cThe silence was deafening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember thinking we had to establish an organization. If the crimes were not being investigated, documented, and preserved with the urgency they demanded, we in Israel would have to do it ourselves,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n At first, the goal was simply to preserve the evidence before it disappeared. The terrorists\u2019 horrific photographs and videos of sexual violence and torture were going viral through email, WhatsApp, and social media platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cHamas itself had uploaded and distributed large quantities of material to cause as much psychological damage as possible. We knew we had to preserve those images before they vanished,\u201d Elkayam-Levy added.<\/p>\n What began as an emergency response soon evolved into the Civil Commission, an NGO established as an independent civilian initiative, separate from government institutions. The purpose was not only to investigate the crimes but to do so according to the highest international legal and evidentiary standards, ensuring that the findings could withstand scrutiny in courts, tribunals, academic research, and historical inquiry.<\/p>\n For Elkayam-Levy, the goal was to place a meticulously documented historical record before the world \u2013 a wake-up call not only to governments and legal institutions, but to humanity itself. The report, for instance, highlights an account from Raz Cohen, a Supernova music festival survivor: \u201cThe men pulled a woman from the vehicle… forcibly removed her clothing, and raped her\u2026 They repeatedly stabbed her, killing her\u2026 they continued to rape her after her death.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Elkayam-Levy: \u201cI never imagined something like this would happen here in Israel. For hours, terrorists moved freely through communities in southern Israel, murdering families in their homes, burning houses, taking hostages, raping them, and broadcasting much of it live.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attacks shattered more than Israel\u2019s border defenses. They shattered a basic sense of security. One of the things we lost from the outset was our sense of safety. It felt like it could happen to any of us. Even today, that sense of vulnerability lingers,\u201d Elkayam-Levy said.<\/p>\n Recalling her 51 days in Hamas captivity, Agam Goldstein, who was 17 when she was abducted, is quoted in the report, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s these little things that break you\u2026 when you have no control over your body and no control over how to take care of your body.\u201d<\/p>\n Elkayam-Levy is the mother of four children. Her youngest son was two-and-a-half years old when she co-founded the commission. Each day, she moved between two worlds. One was filled with evidence of cruelty, degradation, and suffering. The other was filled with children, homework, family dinners, and ordinary life.<\/p>\n \u201cMy children were the reason I did this,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were what kept me sane.\u201d Time with family became a form of emotional recovery. At the same time, she worried constantly about what she was missing. \u201cI wasn\u2019t there enough. They needed me,\u201d she said wistfully.<\/p>\n Elkayam-Levy worried about what her family was also sacrificing. While she immersed herself in evidence, interviews, and the daily demands of the investigation, her husband carried most of the burden of raising their four children. \u201cHe understood and supported me. But it was a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n When Elkayam-Levy was awarded the Israel Prize in the newly created category of Arvut Hadadit (Mutual Responsibility) in 2024, the honor was deeply meaningful, she said, but not primarily for professional reasons. Her older children suddenly saw the work through the eyes of the nation, after years of watching their mother disappear into a mission they were too young to fully understand.<\/p>\n \u201cThey take pride in it now. The recognition helped them understand why I had been absent so often, why the work mattered, and why I had felt compelled to continue despite its enormous toll emotionally and on family life,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Never the work of one person<\/p>\n The establishment of the Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women, Children, and Families<\/a> grew organically out of the independent, non-governmental Dvora Research Institute, which Elkayam-Levy established in 2021. Recognized as a prominent legal scholar, human rights expert, and active in the Israeli women\u2019s protests against the judiciary overhaul, she quickly brought together a team of professionals and colleagues.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Civil Council tapped legal experts, trauma specialists, archivists, researchers, and volunteers. It was headed by a board of high-level international advisers, including the Hon. Irwin Cotler, a former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada, and Sheryl Sandberg, the American technology executive and Lean In Foundation founder. According to a commission spokesperson, Sandberg provided steadfast support, mentorship, and moral leadership from the earliest days.<\/p>\n \u201cVery few people agreed to bear witness to these crimes,\u201d explained Marx-Callaf, the communications director. \u201cThe exposure to this violent material is one of our biggest challenges, and the fact that [the authenticity of] these crimes were questioned even by prominent figures kept us motivated to do this work, despite the difficulties. We wanted to ensure that the world knows what happened and the victims receive the dignity they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the key figures was Karen Jungblut, director of archives, whose task was both technical and deeply human, Elkayam-Levy said. \u201cBefore evidence could become part of a legal record, someone had to view it, authenticate it, classify it, preserve it, and ensure it would remain accessible to future investigators, prosecutors, and historians. That responsibility fell to Jungblut.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was among the first people to confront much of the material that would eventually form the backbone of the commission\u2019s findings: evidence of murder, torture, humiliation, sexual violence, rape, and gang rape in the aftermath of the attacks. The scope of that effort was staggering.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time the report was completed, the commission had reviewed more than 10,000 photographs and video segments representing approximately 18,000 minutes of footage, and conducted 430 in-depth interviews with survivors, former hostages, eyewitnesses, first responders, medical professionals, bereaved families, and others connected to the events of Oct. 7 and its aftermath.<\/p>\n Her task was not only to see it, but to create order from chaos \u2013 to transform scattered fragments of evidence into a permanent historical archive. Without such documentation, much of the evidence might have disappeared into deleted accounts, broken phones, fading memories, and the endless churn of social media. Instead, it became part of a carefully preserved historical record, Elkayam-Levy explained.<\/p>\n What emerged from a collection of seemingly isolated incidents were patterns that the Civil Commission studied to better understand the broader picture.<\/p>\n The report found recurring patterns of sexual violence, torture, humiliation, and degradation across multiple locations, leading investigators to conclude that these crimes reflected a wider operational method rather than the actions of a few individuals acting alone.<\/p>\n Social media as\u00a0psychological warfare<\/p>\n One of the report\u2019s most consequential findings concerns the role of social media itself. The videos, photographs, and live streams were not incidental byproducts of the attacks. According to the commission\u2019s findings, they were part of the strategy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe terrorists were trained, instructed, and encouraged to maximize pain and suffering,\u201d Elkayam-Levy said. \u201cMany of these acts were documented by the perpetrators themselves and uploaded onto social media and other digital platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n For investigators, this became one of the clearest indications that psychological warfare was not incidental to the attacks but part of the strategy itself. Among the videos captured were acts of extreme cruelty, helplessness, torture, degradation, and humiliation. Family members were often forced into impossible situations, compelled to witness the suffering of loved ones or participate in unspeakable acts intended to shatter personal dignity and destroy the sanctity of family bonds.<\/p>\n \u201cThey leveraged social media and digital platforms to maximize the terrorization,\u201d the report concludes.<\/p>\n Hamas made families bear witness, prompting the commission to come up with new terminology to describe a type of deliberate, widespread use of violence to impact an entire family.<\/p>\n Family members often learned what had happened to loved ones through videos circulating online before any official notification arrived. The report found that the violence was designed to harm the victims, traumatize families, communities, and the wider public through deliberate acts of forced witnessing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe videos created so much suffering for people who were not physically there,\u201d Elkayam-Levy said, adding that the tactic represents an evolution in modern terrorism. The violence did not end at the crime scene. The phone became part of the weapon, and the screen an extension of the battlefield, intended to target family and loved ones by amplifying their trauma.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726190.jpeg\"\/)
The comprehensive 298-page document details the sexual terror committed on and after Oct. 7\u2013 central to Hamas\u2019s war strategy. (credit: NIR LOTEM\/REUTERS)A family burden<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726192.jpeg\"\/)
The four co-founders of the Civil Commission (L to R): Danae Marx-Callaf, director of international communications; Israeli-Amarant; Nirit Samocha, COO, and Elkayam-Levy. (credit: CHEN SCHIMMEL)<\/p>\n![\"Sheryl](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726198.jpeg\"\/)
Sheryl Sandberg, Civil Commission advisory board member and Lean-In.org CEO, with Elkayam-Levy at the screening of the documentary ‘Screams Before Silence,’ at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles. (credit: COCHAV ELKAYAM-LEVY)An evolution of modern terrorism<\/p>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726200.jpeg\"\/)
US President Donald Trump meets former hostage Rom Braslavski, a security guard working at the Nova festival who was too traumatized to visit the White House earlier this year with other former hostages. He has spoken out about his sexual abuse in Hamas captivity. (credit: LIANE GRUNBERG WAKABAYASHI)<\/p>\n