Sent to UN

Report describes Hamas torture of hostages

Israel's Ministry of Health has submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards. The report describes the severe abuse suffered by Israeli hostages abducted by the militant Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Health Minister Uriel Busso spoke of "cruel violence, psychological abuse, physical torture and acts that defy imagination."

The report is based on the findings of doctors who treated more than 100 hostages who were either released or freed. Among them were men, women and children. Almost all of them were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence in one form or another. Typical methods used to break the willpower of the abductees included solitary confinement, starvation, sleep deprivation, violence, threats and non-treatment of injuries and chronic illnesses.

A demonstrator in Israel insists on an end to the war in order to protect the hostages abducted in the Gaza Strip.(Bild: AFP)

Sexual assaults on female hostages
Hostages were beaten, tied up and pulled by the hair by their tormentors, denied food and water and inflicted with burns. They were often held in the worst hygienic conditions. Sometimes painful medical treatments were carried out without anesthesia. Women were subjected to sexual assaults and had to undress in front of their male captors and endure touching.

Traumatic experiences
Hostage-taking and captivity were traumatic experiences for those affected. "The medical and psychosocial teams believe that substantial resources and tailored therapies are needed to manage the rehabilitation and reintegration of the returned hostages," the report states.

In the terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and abducted a further 250 in the Gaza Strip. Around 100 of them are still in the hands of their kidnappers, many of whom are probably already dead. The massacre by the Islamists triggered the Gaza war.