The Israeli Ministry of Health has submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards. It describes the serious abuses under which Israeli hostages were abducted in the Gaza Strip by the militant Palestinian organization Hamas.
Health Minister Uriel Busso spoke of “cruel violence, psychological abuse, physical torture and acts that defy the imagination.”
The report is based on the findings of doctors who have treated more than a hundred hostages who have been released or rescued. Among them were men, women and children. Nearly all were subjected to physical, mental and sexual violence in one form or another. Methods to break the willpower of the abductees are typical, such as solitary confinement, starvation, sleep deprivation, violence, threats and failure to treat injuries and chronic diseases.
Sexual assaults on female hostages
Hostages were beaten, tied up and had their hair pulled, denied food and water and burned by their captors. They were often held in the worst sanitary conditions. Sometimes painful medical procedures were performed without anesthesia. Women were subjected to sexual assaults such as undressing in front of their male captors and enduring touching.
Traumatic experiences
Hostage takings and imprisonment were traumatic experiences for those affected. “The medical and psychosocial teams believe that substantial resources and tailored therapies are required to achieve the rehabilitation and reintegration of the returned hostages,” the report said.
In the terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and abducted another 250 to the Gaza Strip. About a hundred of them are still in the hands of their captors, and many of them are probably already dead. The Islamic massacre sparked the Gaza war.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
