Israel is preparing to submit a report to the United Nations later this week that describes the torture suffered by Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas to Gaza last October 7, including sexual assault and the “branding” of children.
The report was compiled based on medical evidence and testimony gathered after a year of treating hostages that were released or rescued. It will be submitted to Alice Edwards, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The report says, in part:
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. Additionally, some of them reported that the captors sexually assaulted them or forced them to undress.
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The hostages were denied medical treatment for acute injuries caused during October 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. Upon arrival in Israel, intensive treatment was given to the returned hostages.
The captors also tortured those injured by performing painful procedures without anesthesia.…
About half of the returned hostages described being deliberately starved during their captivity. They were given a poor diet, which often led to hunger that worsened over time.
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In captivity, the hostages were often subjected to solitary confinement, poor sanitation, severe medical neglect, lack of sleep, starvation, sexual abuse, violence, threats, and brainwashing through media designed to break their spirit and make them submissive.
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Two of the children that were held together during captivity reported that they were held bound and were beaten throughout their captivity. Signs of binding, scars, and marks consistent with trauma were found.
Additionally, two young children had burn marks on their lower limbs. One child stated that the burns were the result of a deliberate branding with a heated object. Both the child and adults who were with him in captivity described the incident as a purposeful branding event, not an accident. It was described as an extremely traumatic experience.
The Times of Israel reported Sunday that a Hebrew-language version of the report includes evidence that terrorists forced two teenage hostages “to perform sexual acts on one another.”
President Isaac Herzog reacted to the report: “The UN has the facts. It is morally obliged to do everything in its power to bring the hostages home now.”
There are 100 hostages still in Gaza, including seven Americans, and up to two-thirds of them are believed to still be alive.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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