International Report to UN describes Hamas torture of hostages
The Israeli Ministry of Health has submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards.
29.12.2024, 00:05
29.12.2024, 00:06
SDA
The report describes the severe abuse suffered by Israeli hostages kidnapped by the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Health Minister Uriel Busso said it involved "cruel violence, psychological abuse, physical torture and acts that defy imagination."
The report is based on the findings of doctors who treated more than 100 hostages who were either released or freed. Among them were men, women and children. Almost all of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence in one form or another. Typical methods used to break the willpower of the abductees included solitary confinement, starvation, sleep deprivation, violence, threats and non-treatment of injuries and chronic illnesses.
Hostages were beaten, tied up and pulled by the hair by their tormentors, denied food and water and inflicted with burns. They were often held in the worst hygienic conditions. Sometimes painful medical treatments were carried out without anesthesia. Women were subjected to sexual assault, having to undress in front of their male captors and endure touching.
Hostage-taking and captivity were traumatic experiences for those affected. "The medical and psychosocial teams believe that substantial resources and tailored therapies are needed to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returned hostages," the report states.
Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and abducted another 250 in the Gaza Strip during the terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year. Around 100 of them are still in the hands of their kidnappers, many of whom are probably already dead. The massacre by the Islamists triggered the Gaza war.
