An Israeli hostage recounted for the first time in extensive interviews how she was repeatedly assaulted during her 55 days in captivity.
Amit Soussana is the first former hostage to publicly speak out about the sexual and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her captors in Gaza, according to The New York Times. Soussana told the outlet that she has decided to speak out now in an effort to raise awareness about the struggles faced by hostages, more than 100 of whom still remain trapped in Gaza.
On October 7, Soussana was taken from her closet in Kfar Aza kibbutz and dragged into Gaza by at least ten men who repeatedly tackled her to the ground as they struggled to restrain her. She told the Times, her captors beat her and wrapped her in white fabric until they eventually bound her hands and feet and took her into Gaza.
"I didn’t want to let them take me to Gaza like an object, without a fight," Soussana told the Times. "I still kept believing that someone will come and rescue me."
Soussana described to The Times being detained at roughly half a dozen sites, including private homes, an office and a subterranean tunnel. But, her first stop was a luxury private home where she was watched by a guard who called himself Muhammad.
The Israeli lawyer said he repeatedly started asking her about her sex life and when her period was due while she was held alone in a child’s bedroom and chained by her left ankle. She said he would sometimes sit beside her on the bed, lift her shirt and touch her.
Then, on the morning of October 24, Muhammad unchained her from the bed and led her to the bathroom, where she undressed and began washing herself in the bathtub. Before she was finished, he returned and stood in the doorway, holding a pistol.
"He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead," Soussana said during her Times interview. He then hit her, forcing her to remove her towel, groped her, sat her on the edge of the bathtub and hit her again.
"He sat me on the edge of the bath. And I closed my legs. And I resisted. And he kept punching me and put his gun in my face," Soussana said. "Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him," she recalled.
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After the assault, she told The Times that she was left sitting naked in the dark, but when Mohammad returned, she said he showed remorse, saying, "I’m bad, I’m bad, please don’t tell Israel."
"You can’t stand looking at him — but you have to: He’s the one who’s protecting you, he’s your guard," she recalled. "You’re there with him, and you know that every moment it can happen again. You’re completely dependent on him."
She was later transferred to another private apartment, where she said guards wrapped her head in a pink shirt, forced her to sit on the floor, handcuffed her and began beating her with the butt of a gun. After several minutes, they used duct tape to cover her mouth and nose, tied her feet and placed the handcuffs on the base of her palms, she said.
She also described being suspended, hanging "like a chicken" from a stick stretching between the gap of two couches, while they beat her. She recalled being in so much pain that she felt her hands might be dislocated. They beat the soles of her feet, while simultaneously demanding information they claimed she was hiding from them.
"It was like that for 45 minutes or so," she told The Times. "They were hitting me and laughing and kicking me, and called the other hostages to see me."
Then, the kidnappers untied her and took her back to the bedroom, before they told her she had 40 minutes to produce the information they wanted, or they would kill her.
Soussana was released from captivity on Thursday, Nov. 30 and was reportedly badly wounded, suffering from fractures in her right eye socket, cheek, knee and nose, as well as severe bruising on her knee and back. The report stated that several injuries were related to her abduction on Oct. 7, including punches to her right eye.
Hamas and its supporters repeatedly denied that its members sexually abused hostages in captivity or victims of the October 7 terrorist attack, but earlier this month the United Nations issued a report finally recognizing that they had "found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages."
The report was carried out by Pramila Patten, the special representative of the secretary-general, who also highlighted that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity."
"The mission team also found a pattern of victims, mostly women, found fully or partially naked, bound, and shot across multiple locations," Patten said, adding that "although circumstantial, such a pattern may be indicative of some forms of sexual violence, including sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment."
