Warning: This article contains graphic and disturbing accounts from the Oct. 7 bloodbath in Israel.
In a brand new report by the Israeli Ministry of Health, not too long ago submitted to the United Nations, hostages who had been free of Hamas captivity described how they had been subjected to unimaginable struggling. Among the chilling testimonies, two youngsters revealed they had been sure and crushed all through their captivity, with scars and marks of trauma evident on their our bodies. Others reported deliberate burning with heated objects, leaving everlasting accidents.
Women detailed horrifying sexual violence, together with assaults at gunpoint and compelled undressing in entrance of captors. Men additionally endured sexual abuse, extended hunger, extreme beatings, and torture involving branding with scorching steel.
Many hostages suffered important weight reduction, with youngsters dropping as much as 18% of their physique weight. Unsanitary situations led to infections, gastrointestinal diseases, and different extreme well being problems. These atrocities, coupled with the systematic use of bodily and psychological abuse as instruments of oppression, paint a grim image of the hostages’ ordeal.
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Photo from a tunnel in Khan Younis, Gaza the place hostages had been held by Hamas terrorists.
While some have been freed, 99 stay in captivity, nonetheless enduring these unimaginable situations 14 months after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault.
Among these nonetheless held is Or Levi, whose spouse was murdered throughout the Oct. 7 assault. Or’s brother, Michael Levi, shared his anguish in an interview, describing the devastating affect of the Health Ministry’s report.
Levi expressed deep frustration with the worldwide neighborhood, significantly the United Nations, and mentioned he holds little hope for significant motion after the report. “For some cause, the Israeli facet isn’t counted as human,” he informed Fox News Digital. “The U.N. ignores the truth that Hamas is committing crimes towards humanity.” Levi represented the hostages’ families in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council final month. “When I addressed the Security Council, I needed them to listen to a private story. They want to grasp that there can’t be lives which are value greater than others.”
“When you see how inhumane and horrible the situations that the hostages are in, and understanding that my brother is certainly one of them… it kills me,” he mentioned. “Thinking about my brother, who is sort of six ft three, attempting to face up in darkish, airless tunnels lower than six ft tall – it’s insufferable.”
Pictures are displayed on the partitions of a bomb shelter, by which, six months prior, individuals sought refuge earlier than being killed throughout the lethal Oct. 7 assault on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, close to Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel, April 7, 2024. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
Negotiations to free the hostages are ongoing, after President-elect Trump vowed that there can be “all hell to pay” if the hostages will not be launched earlier than he enters workplace. However, Levi’s brother Or is reportedly not “on the lists” as a result of he’s a younger man and due to this fact not thought-about a “humanitarian case.” Michael defined that his brother has a 3-year-old son who, after dropping his mom on Oct. 7, has solely his father left. “If this isn’t a humanitarian case, I don’t know what’s,” he mentioned.
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Despite his frustration, Levi holds hope for a shift in method beneath Trump. “I’m really optimistic that somebody will do one thing,” he mentioned. “Up till now, the stress on Hamas and their financiers, like Qatar, Turkey, and Iran, has been insufficient. President Trump’s extra aggressive stance may deliver outcomes.”
“The report we’re submitting to the U.N. is a harrowing testimony to the brutal experiences suffered by the hostages in Hamas captivity,” mentioned Israel’s Health Minister Uriel Busso. “These are actions that can’t be tolerated and demand that the world get up and take motion.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a press release at U.N. headquarters on the state of affairs within the Middle East following the terrorist assault by Hamas on Israel. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket through Getty Images)
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations slammed the world physique throughout a current assembly of the U.N. Security Council for its remedy of the hostages problem. “The U.N. and the worldwide neighborhood are attempting to neglect the torture and atrocities that befell on Oct. 7. We will always remember the horrors, and we won’t cease till we return all of the hostages.”
Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Ministry’s Medical Directorate, added, “The extreme bodily and psychological states of the returnees provide the world a glimpse into the widespread atrocities dedicated by Hamas. The situation of all hostages nonetheless held in Gaza is dire. It is crucial that every one efforts be made to deliver them again.”
Hamas terrorists participate in a navy parade within the central Gaza Strip on July 19, 2023. ( Mahmud Hams/AFP through Getty Images)
The Ministry of Health’s report is split into two sections. The first outlines the bodily and psychological abuse endured by hostages throughout their captivity, primarily based on testimonies from medical groups who handled the returnees. The second part focuses on rehabilitation fashions designed to assist returnees get better, knowledgeable by information from specialised clinics.
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Psychological abuse was equally devastating, in keeping with the report. Hostages had been remoted and compelled to witness acts of violence. Survivors reported intense trauma, together with dissociative episodes, extreme nightmares, and an awesome sense of guilt for leaving family members behind. Many stay unable to regulate to regular life, haunted by the horrors they endured.
The report’s launch has triggered combined reactions. While it validates the survivors’ struggling, it additionally reopens emotional wounds for households and returnees. “The detailed documentation underscores the urgency for worldwide intervention,” mentioned Dr. Hagai Levin, head of the Health Team for Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Levin emphasised the complexity of treating launched hostages. “They face profound psychological challenges, together with PTSD, nervousness, despair, and problem reintegrating into day by day life,” he defined. “Children usually expertise developmental regression and heightened nervousness. Rehabilitation requires a multidisciplinary, long-term method.”
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A bloodied handprint stains a wall in a Nir Oz home after Hamas terrorists attacked this kibbutz days earlier close to the border of Gaza. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Minister Busso’s assertion to the U.N. was unequivocal: “The testimonies introduced on this report function a wake-up name for the worldwide neighborhood to use elevated stress on Hamas and its supporters to free all of the hostages at once. It is an ethical and humanitarian crucial, and the time to behave is operating out.”
