Written by Mayan Lobel
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A new Israeli Health Ministry report to be submitted to the United Nations this week says hostages held in Gaza have been subjected to torture including sexual and psychological abuse, starvation, burns and medical neglect.
The report is based on interviews with medical and social welfare teams that treated more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages, most of whom were released in late November 2023, in a brief truce between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli army rescued eight hostages.
The hostages included more than 30 children and teenagers, a small number of whom were tied up, beaten or branded with a hot object, according to the report to the UN special rapporteur on torture that was published late Saturday.
Women reported being sexually assaulted by kidnappers, including at gunpoint. The report stated that the men were beaten, starved, stigmatized, held in isolation, and denied access to the bathroom. Some were denied treatment for injuries and medical conditions.
The report did not identify any of the hostages by name or age to protect their privacy, but some descriptions matched those given by the hostages and staff who treated them in interviews with Reuters, other media and a UN report.
Hamas has repeatedly denied mistreatment of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Israel during its attack on October 7, 2023. Israeli authorities believe that about half of the 100 hostages still being held in Gaza are still alive.
A new attempt to secure a ceasefire in Gaza including a hostage deal has gained momentum in recent weeks, although no progress has been reported so far.
The war began with a Hamas attack in October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
The subsequent Israeli campaign against Hamas killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health officials, displaced almost all of Gaza's population and reduced much of its territory to rubble.
The Israeli authorities are investigating allegations of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees arrested during the war.
