On Monday, the bill to prosecute the Nukhba terrorists will be brought to the Knesset. The investigation into the events of October 7 is unprecedented by any measure, in the scope of the probe, its complexity and sensitivity, and the unimaginable severity of the crimes committed on the day of the massacre itself and in captivity.
Many questions are now arising: What will the charges be? Who will handle the cases? Will the female and male victims have rights? And more. The various reports provide answers to many questions. Some are satisfactory, others less so.
One central question has not been addressed: whether the Nukhba terrorists will be prosecuted for the sex crimes committed on October 7 and in captivity. Despite repeated attempts around the world to silence and deny them, there is no doubt: grave sex crimes were committed strategically, systematically and on a large scale throughout the attack and in captivity. Many of the female and male victims were murdered, whether during the attack or afterward, and many of the crimes were committed deliberately in full view of others in order to sow terror. All publicly accessible sources clearly indicate that the Nukhba terrorists were driven by an extremist ideology rooted in an explicit intent to commit genocide and in the total denial of the humanity of Israel's population.
Since October 7, I have taken part, together with my colleagues in the Dinah Project at the Rackman Center at Bar-Ilan University, in a difficult and exhausting struggle in which the State of Israel and many civil society organizations joined forces to bring recognition and justice for the female and male victims.
In August 2025, nearly two years after the attack, the UN secretary-general, precisely someone who is not usually perceived as sympathetic to Israel, finally ordered Hamas to be included on the list of organizations that use sexual violence as a weapon of war. The international importance of this move, and its meaning for the female and male victims, cannot be overstated.
After all this, it is inconceivable that the indictments against the Nukhba terrorists will not include charges over sex crimes. Yet for now, all official bodies are silent whenever the question of filing indictments over the sex crimes is raised.
This silence is deeply troubling.
The sex crimes were committed as part of a mass assault by Nukhba terrorists, aimed at dehumanization and genocide. The terrorists operated inside an inconceivable "vacuum" in which everything was "permitted," murder, massacre and sex crimes alike.
Legally, in such a case, all the terrorists who chose to take part in the mass assault can be held jointly responsible for all the crimes committed during the attack, including the sex crimes, even if they did not physically commit them themselves.
In such a case, there is also no need to link a specific perpetrator to a specific victim, because the responsibility is shared. This is not collective punishment, but legal responsibility anchored in law, which should be attributed to anyone who knowingly and willingly chose to join the attack. Refraining from prosecuting the Nukhba terrorists for the sex crimes would be destructive, nationally and internationally. It would deal a devastating blow to the female and male victims and collapse, in a single moment, a two-and-a-half-year struggle for recognition and justice.
Woe to us if we reach that point.
Col. (res.) Sharon Zagagi-Pinhas is the former chief military prosecutor and the co-founder and director of the Dinah Project at the Rackman Center at Bar-Ilan University.
