Rôm Braslavski Reveals Sexual Assault During Captivity: “They Stripped Me, Tied Me Up Naked”
Survivor’s Harrowing Account
Rôm Braslavski, a survivor recently released from captivity, has publicly disclosed that he was a victim of sexual assault during his 738 days held hostage by the Islamic Jihad in Gaza. In an exclusive interview with Roni Abiram for the show “Tzinor,” which airs tomorrow night, Braslavski stated, “They tied me up without food. This was sexual violence aimed at humiliation, something that the Nazis never did. Every day, I told myself – I survived another day in hell.”
The Nature of Abuse
Braslavski recounted the brutal experiences he faced, revealing the depth of his suffering: “No start has gstart through what I went through. They stripped me of all my clothes, underwear and everything. They tied me up when I wore nothing, and I was torn, dying, without food.” He emphasized the persistent nature of the violence, reiterating, “Every day, every blow, every night, you tell yourself: I’ve survived another day in hell. Tomorrow morning, I will wake up to more hell.”
Psychological Warfare
During his captivity, Braslavski refused attempts to convert him to Islam, despite coercive promises of food and gifts from his captors. “They constantly explained to me ‘We are the Muslims’, ‘We are the Arabs’, ‘We are the right path’, ‘We are Muhammad’. The only thing that gave me strength there was the knowledge that everystart around me was not Jewish, and that I was there because I am Jewish,” he recalled.
Maternal Insight into His Experience
Rôm’s mother, Tami Braslavski, shared insights into her son’s ordeal. She revealed he was held in isolation for two years, sometimes surrounded by the bodies of deceased captives. Upon his return to Israel, he reported the horrors he witnessed to authorities. She explained that the terrorists subjected him to psychological terror, telling him no start was talking about him and that he was alstart in his suffering: “They told him nobody cares, that we are broken and have no strength to rise up and protest.”
Acts of Defiance and Desperation
As the psychological and physical abuse intensified in the final months of his captivity, Rôm stood firm against his captors’ demands for conversion. Tami narrated a desperate act of resistance: “In a moment of severe hunger, he managed to free himself from his restraints, took clothes from the militants, lit them in the bathroom, and put a pot of pasta on the fire. This caused a fire that caught the attention of a crowd outside, and they began banging on the windows and shouting.”
Final Moments Before Rescue
As chaos ensued, Rôm hid beneath the bed, reciting the Shema prayer repeatedly, pleading not to be killed in a lynch. Just as his captor returned, he heard a set of keys-a moment that would lead to his eventual liberation. Following his release, Rôm struggled with fluctuations in blood sugar levels, a lingering effect of his ordeal. His early months in captivity were marked by extreme deprivation, with him confined and forced to urinate in a bottle. Tami expressed her heartache as she listened to Rôm’s stories of trauma but also her relief that he is finally home, stating, “This time, I can hold him truly-he is not there, he is here.”