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Aviva Siegel, who was held hostage in Gaza, is demonstrating for the release of all Israeli hostages - including her own husband
Photo:
Abir Sultan / EPA
The horror of the survivors: According to Israeli media, several released Hamas hostages and their relatives have reported sexual violence during captivity in the Gaza Strip.
"At this moment someone is being raped in a tunnel," the daughter of a freed woman told members of parliament on Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel newspaper.
The hostages “did nothing wrong,” she said.
Their mother, who was released at the end of November, said the terrorists treated the girls in captivity "like dolls" with whom they could do whatever they wanted.
»I can't breathe, I can't handle it, it's too hard.
It’s been almost four months and they’re still here.”
"I can't understand why the world is silent"
The girls in captivity were like her daughters, she continued.
According to the media, the woman emphasized that men had the same experiences.
"They can't get pregnant, but they're going through it." Her husband is reportedly still being held in the Gaza Strip.
"I can't understand how the world is silent." There wasn't a minute in her 51 days of captivity in which the hostages didn't experience abuse, the Haaretz newspaper quoted the woman as saying.
Another released hostage said many girls in captivity no longer had their periods.
"And perhaps we should pray that it is the body that protects itself so that, God forbid, they cannot become pregnant."
The sister of a woman kidnapped from the Nova music festival stressed that time is a key factor for all hostages, especially female ones.
She asked whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn't mind if they returned pregnant?
After almost four months in captivity, the point for terminating the pregnancy had been passed.
Reports of brutal sexual violence on October 7th
On October 7, 2023, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups carried out a massacre in southern Israel.
They killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 253 others to the Gaza Strip.
Released hostages had already painted a picture of horror at rallies in recent weeks and pointed out the circumstances under which the kidnapped people were and are probably still being held in the Gaza Strip.
The speakers also spoke, among other things, of sexual abuse of women.
There are also numerous reports of brutal sexual violence against women and girls from the massacre on October 7th.
According to Israeli government figures, terrorists in the Gaza Strip are still holding 132 people who they kidnapped from Israel on October 7th.
Israel believes that 105 of them are still alive and that many are being held in Hamas' underground tunnel network.
dop/dpa