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Controversial Twitch streamer Hasan Piker made waves with his visit to the University of Texas-Austin before he even made it into the Lone Star State.
While he was speaking at an event last week hosted by University Democrats, a student group, another speaker with a much different point of view was telling her story of survival. Former Hamas hostage Maya Regev spoke to students with the goal of ensuring that they hear from someone who witnessed the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, firsthand.
In a recent conversation with Digital, Regev took issue with one of Piker’s infamous remarks that “It doesn’t matter if rapes f—ing happened on Oct. 7, like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me.”
HAMAS USED SEXUAL VIOLENCE ‘DELIBERATELY AND SYSTEMATICALLY’ ON OCT 7, COMMISSION REPORT FINDS
Hasan Piker, a controversial Twitch streamer and vocal critic of Israel, recently spoke at UT Austin, despite backlash from Texas lawmakers. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Regev said students concerned about cases like the sexual assault allegations against Cornell fraternity members may be listening to a person who’s said “rape doesn’t matter.”
Asked about his controversial remarks about the reported rapes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, Piker told The New Republic that there was “definitely testimony of sexual violence that had taken place amongst the hostages. But that doesn’t change the dynamic of Israel committing a genocide against the Palestinians, and my opposing that genocide.”
Regev told Digital that Chabad, a Jewish organization with representatives across the globe, reached out to her about speaking at UT Austin after Piker’s visit to the university was announced.
“I’m not here to silence anyone,” Regev told Digital. “I came there to let people hear what I’ve been through, like the other side of the story, with facts, with pictures, with records.”
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Siblings Maya and Itay Regev were kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre. (Remo Casilli/Reuters)
The Anti-Defamation League has criticized Piker for what it calls his “antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes,” and has a list of some of his remarks about Oct. 7, including posting that Hamas hostage and American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander had volunteered for the “Nazi army.”
Regev said that while Piker has freedom of speech and “can say whatever he wants,” it was important for her to make sure students were getting more than one point of view. Regev also emphasized the fact that she was speaking from her own experience, not things she read about from others.
“For me, October 7, it’s not a debate, it’s not something I read online. It’s something that I’ve lived through, something that will forever be inside me, something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life,” Regev told Digital. “I just think that it’s important for them to understand that behind every story there are real human beings.”
“I was a hostage. I was a Hamas hostage,” Regev told Digital. “I was being held by Hamas, by those monsters, and I think that students might, you know, forget that they are actually real human beings, real families that lost their lives, real women that got raped, men, lives were destroyed on October 7.”
Regev pushed back on Piker and other online influencers shaping students’ opinions without firsthand knowledge.
“When they hear an influencer post something, when they read something, it’s important for them to check the facts before they are repeating a slogan or celebrating death of innocent people,” Regev said.
She later added, “I sat with those people. I lived with them for two months, with Hamas people … I think that people should listen to a person who was really there and not to a person who just sees stuff online and has millions of followers.”
When asked what influencers like Piker get wrong about the situation in Gaza, she said that they overlook the realities on the ground, particularly Hamas’ use of Palestinian civilians as human shields.
“Hamas is using children and women and elderly women as a human shield,” Regev said. “I think, again, people should know the facts before they’re talking, and especially when you’re very influencing.”
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Former Hamas hostages Omer Shem Tov, Itay Regev and Maya Regev call for the release of the 59 remaining hostages during a rally in Tel Aviv on May 3, 2025. (Yael Guisky Abas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
On Oct. 7, 2023, Regev went to the Nova Music Festival with her brother Itay Regev and her friend Omer Shem Tov. When the rocket alerts began sounding at 6:29 a.m., Regev was not so alarmed, explaining, as someone who grew up in Israel, it was something she had experienced several times before that day.
“We thought it was just a matter of time before everything will calm down, and we can keep on partying, but after some time we understood that it [was] a lot more serious than what we thought,” she said.
Regev explained that the group headed towards their cars before being told by police officers to abandon their vehicles and that terrorists had invaded the country. That’s when Regev, her brother and Shem Tov began running for what she estimated to be 60 to 90 minutes. They then got a call from Ori Danino, a friend of a friend who was also at the festival. Danino had already gotten out of the danger zone, but decided to turn around and pick up the group to get them to safety. Unfortunately, all of them would be abducted and taken to Gaza.
The group drove for about five minutes before “a big pickup truck” with terrorists began shooting at them, hitting Regev in both of her legs. Her brother was also shot. The terrorists dragged Regev, her brother and Shem Tov out of the vehicle before loading them into the pickup truck and driving them into Gaza. While Danino was initially able to escape, he was later caught by another group of terrorists and taken into the Strip.
The Regev siblings were released from captivity in late November 2023, within a few days of each other.
Regev described her release from Gaza as being bittersweet, feeling grateful to be home while worrying about her friends who were left behind.
“It was a total shock. I thought that Omer will return home, like, a few days after me, but then the ceasefire was stopped. So, it was very hard for me. I couldn’t believe that I escaped this hell, and they are still there being held, Ori, Omer, all the other hostages,” Regev told Digital.
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Ori Danino, who risked his life trying to save Maya Regev, Itay Regev and Omer Shem Tov on Oct. 7, 2023, was kidnapped and survived 11 months of captivity before Hamas executed him and five other hostages. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images)
“I felt very guilty that I was saved, that I’m back home with my family. I can get the medical treatment that I needed to receive and there are people there suffering, still hostages suffering, not eating, being abused physically and mentally. But I understood that I have a voice now, and I have to use it, and I’ll do anything in my [power] to bring them back home,” she added.
Danino would survive 11 months in captivity before terrorists executed him, along with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi and Alexander Lobanov. Shem Tov endured 505 days in Hamas captivity and was released on Feb. 22, 2025.
With her brother and Shem Tov back home, Regev is finally able to look to the future, something she wasn’t mentally ready to do until all of the hostages were returned. Now, she’s enjoying the simple things in life, walking outside, looking up at the sky.
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Maya Regev and her brother, Itay Regev, were released from Hamas captivity in November 2023 after they were kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival. (Prime Minister’s Office/handout via Reuters)
“I just want to do everything that makes me happy,” Regev told Digital. “When I was there in captivity, I promised myself that I will live life. I told myself that if I’ll ever be home again, I’ll live life, and I’ll study, and I’ll go travel the world, and I’d be with friends and my family. And it’s what I’m doing now, you know, I’m just doing whatever makes me happy.”
“I think that the only thing I wish for myself is to be happy forever and grateful for everything that I have.”
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Digital reached out to Piker for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
