A released hostage has described suffering horrific sexual abuse after being kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attacks – as she begged the Israeli government to urgently broker a peace deal to rescue the remaining prisoners.
The woman, identified only by her Hebrew initial Dalet, described in harrowing detail how she was touched “everywhere”, adding that “the only thing that saved me was that I had my period.”
Speaking to National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, she said the remaining female prisoners in Gaza are being “raped day and night” and condemned his government for “abandoning” them.
The former hostage was released from Hamas captivity last November as part of a temporary ceasefire that saw the release of 105 civilian hostages out of the 251 Hamas took in the Palestinian terrorists’ devastating cross-border attack.
When asked how she has been doing since returning home, the woman replied: “I have no life. I haven’t even managed to rehabilitate myself. I wake up to nightmares, wake up to memories of how they beat me, abused me and touched me.’
She then asked Ben Gvir the question: ‘Is that what you want them to do to girls? Continue raping?’
The hardline politician, who is in charge of the country’s police force, bluntly replied that “the alternative is that they rape tens of thousands of girls.”
He reiterated his position that the war should continue indefinitely, and argued that agreeing to a deal that would keep Hamas in power and include the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners would open the door to future attacks in the October 7 style.
“They’re raping them now!” Dalet responded irritated. “They’re raping them now. They are raping them now.”
Protesters raise signs and chant during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israelis held hostage since the October 7 attacks
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was the only member of the security cabinet to vote against the temporary ceasefire in November.
Smoke rising from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, seen from the Israeli side of the border, December 16, 2024
A view of the destruction caused by the Israeli forces’ attack on a home belonging to the Al-Qarinawi family in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza City
After the meeting, the woman told Israeli news channel Channel 12 that she “felt exhausted and hopeless in the face of the minister’s negative response.”
Throughout the war, Ben Gvir repeatedly opposed any hostage deal, instead advocating increased military pressure and the suspension of all aid to war-torn Gaza to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.
He was the only member of the security cabinet to vote against the temporary truce in November.
He advocates that Israel remain permanently in the Gaza Strip and build settlements there, driving out the Palestinian population.
During the heated exchange with the former prisoner, a recording of which was obtained by Israeli media, she urges him: “Now I want you to tell me that you are ready to end the war.”
Ben Gvir replies: ‘What? You’re confused. I think there must be war and that we are obliged to do so [to fight it] until total victory.
“Those who let you down are the ones who did not want to… when they told me that I was crazy in the cabinet and that Hamas was being deterred, and those who told me that from a security point of view it was not okay to make targeted requests to submit. murders.’
The far-right minister reiterated his position: ‘We occupy territory from them, we liberate territory, we encourage voluntary emigration.
‘We must stay there and encourage emigration, on a voluntary basis…’ I don’t want the war to end, because we have to win the war.’
Protesters raise banners and wave flags during an anti-government protest demanding action for the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza
Smoke and flames rise from the al-Tabatibi family home near Palestine Square in Gaza City
He then reportedly claimed that he was responsible for pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war.
“You know how I changed things? Thanks to my threats he continued the war, thanks to my threats…’
“People have been killed under military pressure,” Dalet responded, listing the hostages killed in captivity.
According to Israeli figures, a total of 96 hostages are still missing, the majority of whom are men.
Reports in May indicated that nine female hostages had died in captivity, with a dozen believed to be still alive.
Hamas said last month that a female prisoner was killed in an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza, a claim the IDF said it was investigating.
An Israeli attack in Gaza overnight killed at least eight people from the same family, most of them women and children, Palestinian medics said.
The strike hit a house in Gaza City’s central Daraj neighborhood late Monday, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
Rescue workers recovered the bodies of eight people, including two women and four children, from the rubble.
An Israeli tank approaches the border with the Gaza Strip
The dead included a father and his three children, and the children’s grandmother, according to a list of victims obtained by the Associated Press.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attack.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its bloody offensive last October has now surpassed 45,000, according to Palestinian figures.
Since October 7, when Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250, negotiations for a ceasefire in exchange for the hostages have moved at a snail’s pace.
Although more than 100 people were released in November 2023, little progress has been made since then.