A released hostage has described enduring horrific sexual abuse after being kidnapped during the Hamas October 7 attacks – as she pleaded with the Israeli government to urgently secure a peace deal to save the remaining captives.
The woman, identified only by her Hebrew initial Dalet, recounted in harrowing detail how she was touched ‘all over’, adding that ‘the only thing that saved me was that I was on my period.’
Speaking to national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, she said that the remaining female captives in Gaza are being ‘raped day and night’, and condemned his government for ‘failing’ them.
The former hostage was released from Hamas captivity as part of a temporary truce in November last year, which saw the release of 105 civilian hostages out of the 251 Hamas took in the Palestinian terrorists’ devastating cross-border attack.
Asked how she has been doing since her return home, the woman said: ‘I have no life. I haven’t even managed to rehabilitate myself. I’m woken up by nightmares, woken up by memories of how they beat me, abused me, touched me.’
She then posed the question to Ben Gvir: ‘Is that what you want them to be doing to girls? Continuing to rape them?’
The hardline politician, who is in charge of the country’s police force, responded bluntly that ‘the alternative is that they rape tens of thousands of girls.’
He reiterated his stance that the war should go on indefinitely, and argued that by agreeing to a deal that keeps Hamas in power and involves the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners would open the door to future October 7-style attacks.
‘They’re raping them right now!’ Dalet responded, agitated. ‘They’re raping them right now. They’re raping them right now.’
Demonstrators raise placards and chant during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israelis held hostage since the October 7 attacks
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was the only member of the security cabinet to vote against the temporary truce in November
Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, December 16, 2024
A view of the destruction resulting from the Israeli forces’ attack on a house belonging to the Al-Qarinawi family on the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza City
After the meeting, the woman told Israel’s Channel 12 news outlet that she ‘felt drained and hopeless in the face of the minister’s dismissive response.’
Throughout the war, Ben Gvir has repeatedly opposed any hostage deal, advocating instead for increased military pressure and the cessation 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 argues for Israel to permanently remain in the Gaza Strip and build settlements there, forcing out the Palestinian population.
During the heated conversation with the former captive, a recording of which was obtained by Israeli media outlets, she is heard urging him: ‘Now I want you to tell me you’re ready to end the war.’
Ben Gvir responds: ‘What? You’re confused. I think there has to be a war and we are obligated [to fight it] until total victory.
‘The ones who abandoned you are the ones who didn’t want… when they told me I was crazy in the cabinet and that Hamas was deterred, and the ones who told me that from a security standpoint it wasn’t okay to request targeted assassinations.’
The far-right minister went on to repeat his stance: ‘We occupy territory from them, we liberate territory, we encourage voluntary emigration.
‘We have to stay there and encourage emigration, voluntarily… . I don’t want there to be an end to the war because we have to win the war.’
Protesters raise placards 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 house belonging to the al-Tabatibi family near the 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’s continued the war, thanks to my threats…’
‘People have been murdered because of military pressure,’ Dalet responded, listing hostages who had been killed in captivity.
A total of 96 hostages remain unaccounted for, according to Israeli figures, the majority of whom are men.
Reports in May suggested that nine female hostages had died in captivity, with around a dozen believed to be alive.
Hamas said last month that a female captive was killed in an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza, a claim the IDF said it was investigating.
An Israeli strike in Gaza overnight killed at least eight people from the same family, most of them women and children, Palestinian medics said.
The strike late on Monday hit a house in Gaza City’s central neighbourhood of Daraj, according to the Health Ministry’s ambulance and emergency service.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of eight people including two women and four children from under the rubble, it said.
An Israeli tank moves near the border with the Gaza Strip
Among the dead were a father and his three children, and the children’s grandmother, according to a casualty list obtained by the Associated Press.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike.
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 around 1,200 people and kidnapped over 250, negotiations for a ceasefire deal in exchange for the hostages have developed at a snail’s pace.
Though over 100 people were released in November 2023, little progress has since been made.
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