Former hostages describe Hamas brutality before UN anti-torture committee

Keith and Aviva Siegel experienced starvation, sexual humiliation, and terror during their captivity.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Former hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel testified before the UN Committee Against Torture on Wednesday about the horrors they experienced and witnessed as captives in Hamas’ hands.

Speaking in Geneva as part of an Israeli delegation, Keith revealed information he had not publicized after his release in the second hostage deal in February, after 484 days of captivity.

He told of being starved, denied water, threatened with knives, prevented from using the bathroom, and sexually humiliated.

For “amusement,” he said, “Our captives compared my genitals to those of another hostage…. More than once young terrorists forced me to undress in front of them, and shaved my body.”

At one point, he was brought into a room where a female hostage was lying with her mouth taped and hands and feet bound, he said, to convince her to confess that she was an IDF officer.

“Two terrorists were beating her with a rod, as I was telling her to confess, knowing that she had nothing to confess to,” he said. “A third terrorist stood by her head, was holding a sharp rod, and pushed that sharp rod to her forehead, applying pressure,” while another “held a pistol to her head and told her that if she does not confess, he will kill her.”

He was held with his wife until her release in the first hostage deal 50 days into the war. At times he was held with others, but for six full months he was kept alone.

“I was moved 55 times,” he attested. “I was held in tunnels and schools and residential homes with children and with wives of terrorists.”

He described himself as having “every basic human right stripped from me” at age 66, “cut off from the world” and “terrified.”

“I’m not asking for your mercy,” Keith stated. “I’m asking you to ensure the horrors the terrorists committed against me and others in captivity never happen again.”

In her testimony, Aviva said in part, “For 51 days, I was certain I’d die any moment. They threatened me, starved me, gave me insufficient water. I lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) in 51 days.”

She was forced to drink contaminated water that gave her stomach pains and diarrhea, and to lie still from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m., with terrorists threatening to kill anyone who moved.

She described the sexual assaults that terrified young female captives told her about, such as Hamas captors who touched them all over their bodies or stood staring at them while they showered.

“Another young woman [was] taken by a terrorist to the shower, told to undress, and forced to perform oral sex on him and smile afterward,” she said.

After they spoke, Justice Ministry Director General Itamar Donenfeld told the committee, “The testimonies we heard here today aren’t just personal stories – they’re a moral and legal indictment against the world’s silence.”

“The international community’s silence facing torture, kidnappings, and abuse violates the very spirit of the Convention [for the Prevention of Torture]. The Convention mustn’t remain just a document – it must be a moral compass demanding action.”