Category: Captivity

At the Knesset, Former Hostages Tell of Endless Sexual Abuse “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words.”

by

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/at-the-knesset-former-hostages-tell-of-endless-sexual-abuse; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]

In the Knesset, former hostages who had been released in the November exchange of imprisoned terrorists for Israeli civilians held captive told them what it was like for them in Gaza. The focus of the Knesset hearing was on the sexual abuse and rape of female captives. The world, in danger of forgetting about the hostages, as all eyes are on Israel’s putative misdeeds in Gaza, needs to be constantly reminded of what is happening to those still held captive. More on their testimony can be found here: “‘Raped Daily’: Former Israeli Hostages Recount Sexual Abuse by Hamas Terrorists as Families Plead for Action,” by Debbie Weiss, Algemeiner, April 7, 2024:

In an emotional hearing at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, former hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza recounted harrowing tales of sexual harassment and abuse, as families of those still held captive pleaded for the Israeli government to do more to secure their release.

“As hard as it is to say, every girl there goes through sexual harassment one way or another,” said Mia Regev, who was freed in November after 50 days in captivity. Fighting back tears, she urged lawmakers to take action, saying, “Your job is to bring them back home.”

Sharon Aloni-Cunio, also released in November, said “the fear is endless” for female captives. “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words,” she told the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women’s Status and Gender Equality. “The terrorist is the sole arbiter of your fate.”

She added: “The feeling of helplessness is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Each moment feels never-ending and every movement of the terrorists causes stomach cramping because who knows what might happen.”

Mothers and sisters of the remaining hostages stood with their loved ones outside the committee room, some of them wearing clothes that appeared to be stained with blood. Liri Albag’s mother, Shira, said at the start of the hearing, “She’s in hell. Does anyone understand what it means to be in hell?”

“Our daughters experience daily suffering there. They are harmed in body and soul. My Liri was, and still is — I don’t know because I have no information about her — a slave in the homes of Gazans,” she said.

“All the decision-makers — you need to understand that every day you witness the rape that happens in Gaza,” she continued. “These girls are raped daily and everyone ignores them. You close your eyes. I hear Liri every day screaming for help: ‘Mom, save me already.’ Liri’s soul is crushed, and I cannot speak about what has happened to her body.”

Yaffa Ohad, the aunt of Noa Argamani, attended the hearing instead of Argamani’s mother, who is dying of cancer. Ohad fainted during the hearing and required medical attention. Before she fainted, Ohad said since the testimony of Amit Soussana, the first hostage to go public with her testimony of sexual torture during her captivity, had “wiped the family out. The thoughts will not leave us alone.”…

Do you think that the international media will cover these harrowing stories of how the female hostages held by Hamas are being subject to nonstop sexual abuse? Outside of Israel itself, those hostages are being forgotten. The media’s bandwidth only has room, it seems,for Israel’s “genocidal” attacks in Gaza, its “indiscriminate bombing,” its “unforgivable killing of humanitarian aid workers.” Continue to remind yourself, and remind others whenever you can, of what those hostages every day continue to endure.

Hamas Claims That Israeli Hostages Left Captivity ‘Happy and Laughing’

By

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/04/hamas-claims-that-israeli-hostages-left-captivity-happy-and-laughing; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

We all know that Hamas threatened the Israelis hostages that it was just about to release last November to put on happy faces, and wish their former captors “Shalom” for the cameras, and those who could manage it did as they were told. They had been warned that if they did not collaborate, it would go hard with the hostages still being held captive, whom they were leaving behind. But when they arrived home, the released hostages proceeded to describe the horrific conditions in which they had been held. They spoke of living on one piece of pita bread each day, or being occasionally given rotten meat. Many of them lived in the tunnels, enduring the cold and the darkness. None had received a visit from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). And finally, after many months, some of them finally spoke publicly of the sexual abuse they had endured every day, including rapes, and revealed that all of the female hostages were still being similarly abused.

Christine Douglass-Williams wrote about this here, and more on this sexual abuse, and Hamas’ blanket denial, can be found here: “Outrageous lie: Israeli hostages in Gaza “left happy and laughing” – they received “generous treatment” – PA TV interview,” by Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, April 4, 2024:

Recently, an Israeli woman aged 40 who was held hostage by Hamas revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her captor. And she is not the only one. Other hostages have also testified about sexual abuse, torture and beatings while being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

As more testimonies from Israeli hostages who were freed last November after almost two months in Hamas captivity are being published, the war of narratives has become urgent.

The meager rations, the beatings, the confinement in dark and cold tunnels, were the common lot of the hostages. Several dozen hostages have also been murdered while in Hamas’ captivity over the past six months.

The Palestinian and Arab narrative is entirely fictitious and is intended to humanize Hamas and deny its atrocities. One example is this outrageous claim made to official PA TV by a lecturer at Cairo University that the Israeli hostages received “generous treatment” and left captivity “happy and laughing”:

Head of Radio and TV Department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communications Ashraf Jalal: “The generous treatment Palestine gave the Israeli prisoners (i.e., kidnapped women and children) caused an enormous positive response, because after [the Israelis] lied and said that [Hamas] is abusing them, the [Israeli] people left [Gaza] happy and laughing… What is required is that we redirect the media spotlight to this issue.”

[Official PA TV, From Cairo, Feb. 12, 2024]

The brazen lie follows those made by senior PA officials, which have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch. In November 2023, Minister Qadura Fares, who is the director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, said that Israel “made up this story and said: They [the Palestinians] raped, killed, and burned” [Official PA TV, Nov. 20, 2023]. In December 2023, PLO Executive Committee member and PLF Secretary-General Wasel Abu Yusuf said: “Since October 7, there has been a Zionist version that [Israel] has attempted to spread worldwide out of tendentious propaganda, [claiming] that there was murder of children, rape of women, crimes, and the like” [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 3, 2023].

But we have testimony about the murdered children, the rapes, the mutilation of bodies of Israeli survivors who witnessed or overheard these events from their hiding places. We also have videos of these atrocities that were taken at the time by those who committed them, so proud were they of how they had terrorized, tortured, raped, and killed the hated Israelis. And, of course, we have the 1,200 corpses of those who were burned to death, or stabbed or shot, with the females having had their breasts sliced off, and genitalia cut off men, as well as their eyes gouged out.

It’s not the charges of murder and kidnapping that Hamas feels the need to deny, but the charge of “sexual abuse” — meaning “rape.” That is seen as beyond the pale. Pass out candies and celebrate the murders of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, but remain silent about the mass rapes which Muslim men are not supposed to engage in. “We have our standards,” they imply, and rape is not allowed. It’s absurd of course: there were endless rapes on October 7, and then more sexual abuse, including rapes, of female hostages by their Hamas captors in Gaza that continue right up to the present day. So please understand the threats that made some of those hostages — only a few could manage it — appear to be “happy and laughing” for the whirring cameras as they left Gaza, freed in the November hostage-for-prisoner exchange. And months later, concentrate on the full horror of what the remaining hostages — starved, beaten, held in cold, dark tunnels, with sexual abuse and rape a daily occurrence – must still endure.

Israel-Hamas war: Israeli Govt. on hostage operations, murdered bodies held captive

The Israeli Government provided an update on the 129 hostages being held captive by Hamas. Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy says Hamas is holding the bodies of hostages that have been murdered. The government says Hezbollah has launched an anti-tank missile from inside Lebanon at the Greek Orthodox Church, injuring a civilian.