Israel’s Health Ministry says in a report to the UN that hostages released last year from the Gaza Strip, including children, suffered physical and sexual violence during their captivity.
The document is based on testimonies from former hostages who say they were burned, beaten, deprived of water and food or sexually abused by their captors.
96 hostages still in Gaza
It must be handed over this week to Alice Jill Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture, the Israeli Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday.
During the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, 251 people were kidnapped and taken to the Palestinian territory.
The following month, a one-week truce, the only one so far, allowed the release of 105 hostages. Ninety-six others remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have been declared dead by the Israeli army.
Abominable testimonies
“One of the released hostages says he was sexually abused by a Hamas terrorist under force at gunpoint,” the report reads. “Some women described being tied to beds while their captors watched.”
Israel has already published reports and testimonies on the conditions of the hostages’ captivity, some denouncing sexual abuse, which the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has systematically rejected.
“The horrors endured by the hostages reveal to the world the brutality of the enemy that Israel must face,” commented Israeli Health Minister Uriel Busso, calling on the international community to “increase pressure on Hamas” to the release of the hostages still held.
The ceasefire postponed
Progress had been made in recent weeks to reach an agreement on the hostages and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but the two camps recently accused each other of stalling negotiations.
“The UN has the facts. She has a moral obligation to do everything in her power to ensure that the hostages come home immediately,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The Hostage Families Forum, the main support association, called for “an agreement to be found as quickly as possible to ensure the immediate release of all the hostages”.
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