Shaylee Atary, an Israeli rape victim says she would have been safer with Palestinian resistance than under Israeli authorities. (Photo by Le Parisien)

An Israeli woman who was captured by Palestinian resistance fighters during the October 2023 al-Aqsa Flood Operation said she felt safer with Hamas in Gaza than in Israel.

Shaylee Atary made the remarks while testifying at the Israeli Knesset during a committee session on support for survivors of sexual violence.

She revealed that Israeli authorities provided an inadequate response to a violent sexual assault she suffered in 2011.

"In April 2011, I was violently raped on the asphalt of a residential parking lot beneath my apartment in Tel Aviv," Atary said.

She accused the judicial system of shielding her assailant. "The Israeli judicial system hands out gag orders to rapists like candy," she said.

After reporting the assault to the police and providing evidence of her injuries, Atary says, "The police were negligent, and the prosecution closed the case for lack of evidence."

"The court protected the perpetrator under a gag order. The investigation materials show serious negligence and a lack of willingness to get to the truth. My main witness, who found me unconscious, was never even questioned - the person who saw my injuries and heard me screaming at the rapist," she continued.

Atary highlighted that, under Israeli law, victims of sexual assault are not considered a formal "party to the proceedings" and are granted limited rights throughout the judicial process.

She said she and the Association of Rape Crisis Centers (ARCCI) in the Israeli-occupied territories are drafting legislation that would give victims the right to be "kept informed of proceedings regarding a request for a gag order for a suspect in sexual offenses, and to express [their] position regarding the request."

The revelations come as accounts from recently released Palestinian prisoners detail the organized and systematic use of sexual torture inside Israeli prisons.

More than 9,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli custody, many without formal charges. Human rights groups say these arrests and abuses are part of a broader campaign of repression against Palestinians living under occupation.

In October, five Israeli human rights organizations submitted a report to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) documenting "a dramatic escalation in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment across all detention facilities, carried out with near total impunity and implemented as state policy targeting Palestinians."