Israeli doctors report at least 30 freed hostages were sexually abused

The hostages who were sexually abused range in age from 12 to 48 and the females have been given pregnancy tests and have been screened for sexually transmitted diseases.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In an update on an earlier report, Israeli doctors say at least 30 of the freed hostages, most women and girls but also some males, were sexually abused during their captivity in Gaza, according to USA Today.

In early December after initial examinations by medical professionals at least 10 freed hostages were reported to have been sexually assaulted by Hamas terrorists, but this number has been revised upward to at least 30 with additional examinations and as released hostages open up about their experiences.

The hostages who were sexually abused range in age from 12 to 48 and the females been given pregnancy tests and have been screened for sexually transmitted diseases.

Although the doctors did not go into detail about the nature of the abuse, they noted that many of the freed hostages showed physical evidence of sexual abuse as well as signs of PTSD and “came to us as patients with the trauma of those who witnessed very severe sexual assaults.”

One doctor said that people who have been sexually abused typically have a mortality rate four times higher than someone who has not been sexually abused.

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forums released anonymous quotes from meetings between released hostages and their families and members of the war cabinet.

“First of all, they touch our girls.”

“My mother almost fainted here (during the cabinet meeting), because she knows what’s going on there. She saw what was done to men,” said the daughter of a freed hostage.

Just as it was known the women at the Supernova music festival were raped, “We know they were raped in Hamas captivity.”

Zaka workers who were examining the bodies in the kibbutzim and at the site of the Supernova music festival collected physical evidence of sexual assault among the corpses, such as broken legs and pelvic bones and genital mutilation so severe that in some cases it wasn’t possible to distinguish males from females.

Many of the freed hostages who endured sexual abuse have only gradually started discussing what happened to them in captivity.

One doctor told USA Today, “The first few days after the hostages were released, they mostly talked about how they lacked adequate food. Then they started to talk about how kids were separated and left in isolated rooms on their own. Then they talked about the aggressiveness of Hamas and how some of the sick and elderly were refused their medications. Finally it was physical violence. It was step-by-step, which is usually how sexual violence testimony goes.”