Freed Israeli hostage recounts sexual abuse in Hamas captivity to NYT

Amit Soussana visits Kfar Azza for the first time after her release in November 2023

Haaretz reports on 26 March 2024:

Former hostage Amit Sousanna recounted being raped and tortured by Hamas to the New York Times, whose article on her experiences was published on Tuesday. The first freed hostage to publicly discuss being subjected to sexual violence, Soussana told the newspaper she was speaking out to raise awareness of the conditions faced by the hostages who are still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.

The New York Times noted that her detailed account was consistent with what she had told two doctors and a social worker less than a day after her release – two of them just hours later. She also spoke to the United Nations staff who authored a report finding “clear and convincing information” that hostages had experienced sexual violence.

Soussana described being held chained in a child’s room. Soussana also said that one day, her captor released her and put her in the shower, and gave her a pot of hot water to use to wash herself. While she was washing herself, he came in and stood in the doorway holding a gun in his hand. “He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead,” she said.

Her attacker punched her and put his gun in her face when she resisted, she said. He removed the towel and brought her back at gunpoint to the room where she was being held. “Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” she said.

She also told the newspaper that besides beating and kicking her, in one instance, Soussana’s captors covered her mouth and nose with duct tape, tied her feet, blindfolded her, and suspended her between two couches, after which they continued to beat her.

Sousanna was taken hostage on October 7 when she was discovered in the bedroom closet she was hiding in. Security footage that captured part of her abduction showed her being dragged toward Gaza as she thrashes around, trying to shake off her captors. She was badly wounded during the event, she told the newspaper, evidenced by the hospital report written after her return. The only time she ever received any kind of medication was on the first day, she said – three pills that she was told were painkillers.

A Hamas spokesman told the New York Times that Sousanna’s recollections were so detailed that it was “difficult to believe the story, unless it was designed by security officers.” He also said that Hamas sees the human body, “and especially that of the woman,” as sacred.

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