Male captives endured continuous starvation, beatings, burns with galvanized iron
(FILE PHOTO) People walk past posters of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since the October 7 attacks, in Tel Aviv on August 11, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the militant Hamas movement.
Oren ZIV / AFP
JERUSALEM (AFP) — An Israeli government report set to be submitted to the United Nations (UN) this week says that hostages, including children, freed last year from Gaza endured physical and sexual abuse during their captivity.
The report from the Israeli health ministry, which it said was based on testimonies from released captives, details incidents of individuals being burned, beaten and deliberately starved by their Hamas captors.
The findings will be presented this week to Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the ministry said in a statement.
The report said that some of the hostages, including children, had been “sexually assaulted or forced to undress, including at gunpoint.”
Women hostages described being “tied to beds while their captors stared at them,” while men also reported severe abuse, the report said.
Israel has previously presented reports and released testimonies from hostages detailing sexual abuses in captivity, which Hamas has consistently denied.
Some former hostages have spoken publicly. Earlier this year, freed hostage Amit Soussana told the New York Times of how she was forced to perform “a sexual act” on one of her captors.
The latest report from the health ministry also said that male captives “endured severe physical abuse, including continuous starvation, beatings, burns with galvanized iron... and being denied access to the bathroom, which forced them to defecate on themselves.”
Israeli health minister Uriel Busso said in a statement released alongside the report that it was “a harrowing testimony to the brutal experiences suffered by the hostages in Hamas captivity.”
“The horrors the hostages endured reveals to the world the brutality of the enemy with whom Israel is engaged.”
Busso called the testimonies a “wake-up call” for the international community to intensify pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.
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