I fear Hamas are raping my daughter while holding her hostage. Freed captives who were with her did not want to tell me to spare my grief

The father of an Israeli girl held hostage by Hamas has said he fears his daughter is being sexually abused after other prisoners released from Gaza avoided telling him details of her condition.

Liri Albag, 18, was abducted from her bed in a bomb shelter along with three other women by Hamas gunmen during their brutal October 7 attacks.

Several of her fellow prisoners were later released by Hamas, but Liri remains missing with no sightings or knowledge of her whereabouts.

Now her grief-stricken father Eli, who met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary David Cameron yesterday, has spoken of his family’s pain – and concerns that Liri is being abused in captivity.

‘They say they have no food, no water, they don’t shower, they sleep on the ground, in very cold humidity, 40 meters underground.

“And most importantly, they touch them,” he said.

“We know that some girls – it’s very difficult to say this – have sexually assaulted them, and we’re concerned, especially that they haven’t released them.”

Mr Albag described his family as ‘broken’, adding: ‘All our lives have collapsed.’

Liri’s father wondered why Hamas did not release younger women between the ages of 18 and 30, and wondered aloud why freed hostages would not respond to his “difficult questions” about sexual abuse.

‘I understand that they don’t want to talk about this, they don’t want to hurt us. But we understand. We really understand,” he said BBC.

“It’s hard to say and hard to think, but I’m afraid they did something wrong to these girls.

“I can’t understand them, I can’t understand these animals.”

Mr Albag shared his concerns yesterday at a meeting of the Conservative Friends of Israel, attended by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.

Liri’s father showed the Prime Minister a photo of his daughter and presented him with a dog tag with the words ‘Bring Them Home’ on it.

Mr Albag said of the Prime Minister: ‘He was very sensitive and at heart he is a very warm person. And for me, it made me feel closer and that he understands our situation very well.

Mr Albag said the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister had told him they will remain in close contact with officials in Qatar – one of the main mediators of the conflict who managed to broker the initial ceasefire, during which dozens of Israeli hostages were released.

Rishi Sunak’s meeting with families of hostages took place as other relatives held a protest at Israel’s parliament yesterday – a symptom of growing discontent with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One woman held up photos of three family members who were among the 253 people rounded up in the Oct. 7 cross-border Hamas rampage that sparked the worst fighting in decades.

About 130 people remain trapped in Gaza after others were brought home under a ceasefire in November.

“There’s only one I’d like to get back alive, one in three!” the female protester shouted after joining the Knesset Finance Committee’s discussion.

Other protesters, wearing black T-shirts, held up signs that read: “You are not going to sit here while they die there.” Get up from your seats.

“Let them go, now, now!” they sang.

The storming of the Knesset came after a top Hamas official declared that there is now “no chance” that hostages held in Gaza will return to their families.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday firmly rejected Hamas’s conditions to end the war: the release of all hostages in exchange for a total military withdrawal from Gaza by the IDF, and Hamas retaining power.

“In exchange for the release of our hostages, Hamas demands the end of the war, the withdrawal of our troops from Gaza, the release of all murderers and rapists,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“I flatly reject the terms of surrender of Hamas’s monsters,” he replied bluntly.

Hours later, Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said the Israeli leader’s refusal to end the military offensive in Gaza “means there is no chance of the return of the (Israeli) prisoners.”

It comes as the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry said last weekend that more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, sparking anti-war protests in cities around the world.

Under a deal struck in late November by the United States, Qatar and Egypt, more than 100 of an estimated 240 hostages captured during an October 7 raid by Hamas militants into Gaza were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israel. prisons.

Since then, Netanyahu has been under increasing pressure to secure the release of the 136 hostages still in captivity.

A horde of protesters camped outside the Israeli prime minister’s residence this weekend, chanting slogans and holding up banners with the faces of dozens of hostages still in the clutches of Hamas.