At a recent event marking the conclusion of the TEEN SPIRIT program organized by the Civilian Public Diplomacy Headquarters, former hostage Dafna Elaykim shared for the first time her deeply personal and traumatic experience of captivity in Gaza. Elaykim, who was kidnapped alongside her younger sister Ella from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the brutal October 7 Hamas attack, revealed that she endured repeated sexual abuse while in captivity.
"One of the terrorists would touch me constantly," Elaykim recounted. "He insisted on accompanying me to the shower, but I refused. He even told me that everyone else would be released, but I would remain with him so he could marry me." Despite the constant fear and intimidation, Elaykim resisted his advances, a choice that demanded extraordinary courage under such extreme circumstances.
In a February interview with N12, Elaykim detailed the chaos of that morning, recalling how multiple Red Alerts blared across the kibbutz as Hamas fighters breached their community. Her father, Noam, entered her room with his partner, Dikla, and her son, Tomer, moments before the militants stormed their home. Amid the gunfire, her father was shot in the leg, and she and her sister were forcibly taken from their home, beginning a nightmare that would last for weeks.
Once in Gaza, the sisters were initially taken to a civilian home, where they were warned, "Do everything we say, or we will kill you." They were then moved repeatedly to different locations as their captors sought to evade detection by the IDF.
Two weeks before their eventual release, the sisters were placed in a facility with other female hostages, where the psychological torment continued. Elaykim shared how her mind often returns to the other women still held captive, reflecting on the unimaginable suffering they must endure. "I can't stop thinking about the girls I left behind, how they are being kept, how they are being beaten," she said.
When the day of their release finally came, Elaykim said she could scarcely believe it, convinced that at any moment, Hamas fighters would ambush them again. "Even as we crossed back into Israel, I feared they would jump out and attack us," she recalled.
Her story stands as a powerful testament to the resilience of those who have endured captivity and a sobering reminder of the human cost of the ongoing conflict.
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