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JERUSALEM – An Israeli government report to be submitted to the United Nations this week says hostages, including children, released from Gaza in 2023 suffered physical and sexual abuse while in captivity.
The Israeli Health Ministry report, which it says is based on testimonies from released prisoners, describes incidents in which individuals were burned, beaten and deliberately starved by their Hamas captors.
The findings will be presented this week to Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, the ministry said in a statement.
According to the report, some hostages, including children, were “sexually assaulted or forced to undress, including at gunpoint.”
Female hostages described being “tied to beds as their captors stared at them,” while men also reported serious abuses, the report said.
Israel has previously presented reports and released testimonies from hostages detailing sexual abuse in captivity, which Hamas has consistently denied.
Some former hostages have spoken publicly. Earlier in 2024, released hostage Amit Soussana told the New York Times how she was forced to perform “a sexual act” on one of her captors.
The latest report from the Ministry of Health also states that male prisoners “suffered severe physical abuse, including constant starvation, beatings, burns with galvanized iron… and were denied access to the bathroom, forcing them to need to do it yourself”.
Israeli Health Minister Uriel Busso said in a statement alongside the report that it was “a poignant testimony to the brutal experiences of the hostages in Hamas captivity.”
“The horrors suffered by the hostages reveal to the world the brutality of the enemy Israel is embroiled in,” he said.
‘Wake-up call’
Mr Busso called the testimonies a wake-up call for the international community to intensify pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
During their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants seized 251 hostages.
Eighty Israelis were among 105 prisoners released in late 2023 during a weeklong ceasefire, the only ceasefire in the more than 14-month war between Israel and Hamas that began after the attack.
There are still 96 hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.
Progress has been reported in recent weeks in efforts to achieve this reach a new agreement that would release the remaining hostages and establish a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“This critical report underlines the urgent need to release all hostages as quickly as possible,” said Moshe Bar-Siman-Tov, Director General of the Ministry of Health.
Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the report “paints a stark reality of the physical abuse and psychological torment” suffered by the hostages.
It urged a comprehensive agreement “to secure the immediate release of all hostages.” AFP
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