Survivor of Hamas Oct. 7 Music Festival Slaughter Recounts Horrific Rape, Murder of Female Attendee

Warning: This story contains graphic details about sexual assault and body mutilation that some readers may find disturbing.

A group of Hamas fighters sexually assaulted and murdered a woman, then raped her again, during the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, a survivor said in an interview with CNN that aired Thursday.

Raz Cohen was attending the Nova music festival with his girlfriend at the time of the attack, which left some 1,200 people dead and involved mass sexual violence by members of Hamas. Israel has since retaliated by invading Gaza and killing more than 22,000 Palestinians.

During the attack on the festival, Cohen hid under a bush in a dried-up streambed when a white van parked nearby and five Hamas gunmen spilled out before capturing a woman.

“After they pulled the clothes off, one of them started to rape her,” Cohen said, according to CNN. “It was something like 40 seconds. After he raped her, he takes a knife and kills her, murdered her. After he did it, he continued to rape the dead body.”

Cohen added that the other men laughed during the attack on the woman, then killed another woman and a man with knives and an ax, CNN reported, though CNN noted it could not independently verify Cohen’s account of the Oct. 7 attack.

Cohen ultimately waited nine hours in the bush before Israeli rescuers arrived.