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Accounts of Hamas guards raping hostages featured in documentary

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Goldstein-Almog said that most of the hostages had stories about sexual or physical abuse at the hands of the Hamas guards. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In a new documentary about sexual crimes committed by Hamas, released hostage Agam Goldstein-Almog (17) gave a harrowing account of a fellow captive who was raped at gunpoint by a Hamas guard.

In the documentary “Screams Before Silence” former Meta COO and author Sheryl Sandberg interviews Agam Goldstein-Almog who describes one of many instances of sexual violence suffered by captives in Gaza, both female and male.

Goldstein-Almog describes sitting in her cell with a young female hostage and asking her what she had been through.

“She started crying, and I cried with her,” she said.

The other hostage told Agam what she had been through before she was moved the night before.

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Although hostages aren’t usually held by themselves, the young woman was alone with a guard, and he told her to wash herself in the sink.

As she did so, he came up to her and put a gun to her head.

“He started kissing her, and she started crying,” Goldstein-Almog described. “Then he took off all her clothes and touched her all over her body.”

The hostage then said the Hamas guard assaulted her for half an hour while she was crying.

“I asked her, ‘Did you do what he told you?’ and she said, ‘Of course. I didn’t have the option not to,’” Goldstein-Almog recounted.

The next day the hostage was taken to another location and the guard warned her not to tell anyone what had happened.

Goldstein-Almog said that most of the hostages had stories about sexual or physical abuse at the hands of the Hamas guards.

Her testimony is only one of many accounts given by freed hostages, first responders and survivors featured in Sandberg’s “Screams Before Silence” documentary that will be released in April.

When asked what prompted her to make the documentary, Sandberg said, “When this happened on October 7 and evidence started coming out about the sexual violence, rape and genital mutilation, the silence was really deafening.”

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“People are denying it particularly because of the polarization around the October 7 attack,” she added. “So this documentary is giving people the opportunity to bear witness, to hear it firsthand from people who were there, saw things, heard things, and first responders who saw the bodies,” she continued.

Sandberg said the documentary tells “the story of how these women, and some men, spent the last moments of their lives” and will be an important tool in holding those responsible accountable for their crimes.

 

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