Israeli Health Ministry will submit a report, which details the “torture and atrocities experienced by Israeli hostages since Oct. 7" including “abhorrent instances of sexual violence,” in the “next few days” to Alice Jill Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, the Israeli mission to the global body told JNS on Saturday.
“The United Nations and the international community are trying to forget the torture and atrocities that took place on Oct. 7,” stated Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. “We will never forget the horrors and we will not stop until we return all the hostages home.”
The report will include “many testimonies of the hostages who returned from Hamas captivity” and “descriptions of the horrors Hamas terrorists inflicted on the hostages, including sexual abuse, starvation, neglect and humiliation,” the Israeli mission told JNS.
The Israeli Health Ministry stated that the report contains two parts.
“The first section details the neglect, abuse, torture and humiliation suffered by the hostages, who were released or rescued from captivity in Gaza, as well as the impact of these experiences on their physical and Physical and mental condition,” it said.
“The second section of the report discusses rehabilitation models that have been deemed appropriate for the returnees, drawing on data collected from primary care nurses, physicians and mental health professionals who have been providing ongoing care, including through specialized clinics for returnees,” it added.
Uriel Busso, the Israeli health minister, stated that the report “is a harrowing testimony to the brutal experiences suffered by the hostages in Hamas captivity—cruel violence, psychological abuse, physical torment and acts that defy comprehension.”
“These are actions that cannot be tolerated and demand that the world wake up and take action,” Busso stated. “The testimonies presented in this report serve as a wake-up call for the international community to apply increased pressure on Hamas and its supporters to free all the hostages without delay.”
“It is a moral and humanitarian imperative, and the time to act is running out,” Busso added.
“Women, men and children, who returned from captivity, reported that they endured severe physical and sexual abuse, such as beatings, isolation, deprivation of food and water, branding, hair-pulling and sexual assault,” the report states. “Additionally, some of them reported that the captors sexually assaulted them or forced them to undress.”
“The hostages were denied medical treatment for acute injuries caused during Oct. 7 and subsequently, in addition to for untreated chronic conditions. Fractures, shrapnel wounds and burns were treated inadequately, leading to complications which required additional surgeries, that could have been prevented with proper care,” it states. “Upon arrival in Israel, intensive treatment was given to the returned hostages.”
“The captors also tortured those injured by performing painful procedures without anesthesia,” it adds. “In one case a hostage died from untreated medical complications.”
