2024-03-27 21:00:02
Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, was kidnapped from her home on October 7, beaten and dragged to Gaza by at least 10 men, some of them armed. Several days after her captivity, she said, his guard started asking him about his sex life. Soussana said she was kept alone in a room chained by her left ankle.
Sometimes the guard would come in, sit next to him on the bed, He lifted her shirt and touched her., said. He also repeatedly asked when she would get her period. When her period ended, around Oct. 18, she tried to dissuade him by pretending he was bleeding for almost a week, she recalled. Around October 24, the guard, who called himself Muhammad, attacked hersaid.
Early that morning, he said, he took off her chain and let her go to the bathroom. After she undressed and began bathing, Muhammad returned holding a gun. “She approached me and pointed the gun at my forehead,” he recalled. He forced her to remove a towel covering her and hit her several times and returned her at gunpoint to the room covered in images of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, he recalled. Then pointing the gun at him, “he forced me to commit the sexual act with him”.
Soussana, 40 years old, She is the first Israeli to speak publicly about sexual assaultl against him during his captivity after the terrorist group’s attack in southern Israel. In his interviews with The Times, he provided extensive details about the sexual and other violence he suffered during a 55-day ordeal. Her story is consistent with what she told two doctors and a social worker less than 24 hours after being released on November 30.
Soussana described having been held in half a dozen places by his kidnappers, including private homes, an office and an underground tunnel. Later they tied her between two sofas and beat her.
Investigation
For months, Hamas and its supporters have denied that their members were sexually abused of people in captivity or during the terrorist attack of October 7. This month, a United Nations report said there was “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had suffered sexual violence and that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that sexual violence occurred during the raid, while acknowledging the “ challenges and limitations” of examining the issue.
After being freed along with 105 other hostages during a ceasefire in late November, Soussana spoke publicly only in vague terms about her treatment in the Gaza Strip, cautious about recounting such a traumatic experience.
When the terrorist group filmed her minutes before she was released, she said that she pretended to have been treated well to avoid jeopardizing her release. Soussana said he had decided to speak out now to raise awareness about the plight of the hostages still held in Gaza, whose number has been estimated at more than 100, as ceasefire negotiations fail.
Hours after his release, he spoke to a top Israeli gynecologist, Julia Barda, and a social worker, Valeria Tsekhovsky, about the sexual assault, the two women said in separate interviews with The Times. A medical report submitted jointly by them and reviewed by this newspaper briefly summarizes their story. “Amit spoke immediately, fluently and in detail, not just about his sexual assault but also about the many other experiences he experienced,” Barda said.
The next day, December 1, he shared his experience with a doctor from Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine. Siegal Sadetzki, a professor at Tel Aviv University’s medical school who helps and advises the woman’s family, said she told Soussana about the sexual assault. a few days after his release. Soussana also spoke to the UN team that published the report on sexual violence.
A Hamas spokesman, Basem Naim, recognized that it was essential for his organization to investigate these allegations, Soussana’s accusations, but that it was impossible in “the current circumstances.” Naim questioned Soussana’s account and asked why he had not spoken publicly about the extent of his mistreatment. He said the level of detail in his account makes it “difficult to believe the story, unless it was crafted by some security agents.”
“For us, the human body, and especially that of women, it is sacred”He said, adding that Hamas’ religious beliefs “prohibit any mistreatment of any human being, regardless of sex, religion or ethnicity.”
Naim criticized the Times for insufficient coverage of Palestinian suffering, including reports of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women, which have been the subject of investigations by UN officials, human rights groups and others. He also maintained that “civilian hostages were not the objective” of the raid and that “From the first moment we have declared our willingness to release them.
However, a Hamas planning document found in a village shortly after the bloody attack on October 7 said: “Take soldiers and civilians as prisoners and hostages to negotiate with them.” A video from October 7 shows uniformed militants of the fundamentalist organization kidnapping civilians.
Soussana lived alone in a small one-story house on the western side of Kibbutz Kfar Azza. After hearing sirens warning of rocket attacks on October 7 he took refuge in his bedroom, which was the reinforced shelter of the house. From her bedroom, Soussana heard the attackers’ shots getting closer.
The small kibbutz lies very close to the Gaza border and was one of two dozen Israeli villages, towns and military bases overrun that day by attackers who killed 1,200 people, including many women and children, and about 240 were kidnapped
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