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‘Raped Daily’: Former Israeli Hostages Recount Sexual Abuse by Hamas Terrorists as Families Plead for Action
Teenage hostages before Oct. 7 and after their capture by Hamas to Gaza. Photo: Screenshot from Israeli government X/Twitter account
In an emotional hearing at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, former hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza recounted harrowing tales of sexual harassment and abuse, as families of those still held captive pleaded for the Israeli government to do more to secure their release.
“As hard as it is to say, every girl there goes through sexual harassment one way or another,” said Mia Regev, who was freed in November after 50 days in captivity. Fighting back tears, she urged lawmakers to take action, saying, “Your job is to bring them back home.”
Sharon Aloni-Cunio, also released in November, said “the fear is endless” for female captives. “To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear; it can’t be described in words,” she told the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women’s Status and Gender Equality. “The terrorist is the sole arbiter of your fate.”
She added: “The feeling of helplessness is one I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Each moment feels never-ending and every movement of the terrorists causes stomach cramping because who knows what might happen.”
Mothers and sisters of the remaining hostages stood with their loved ones’ pictures outside the committee room, some of them wearing clothes that appeared to be stained with blood. Liri Albag’s mother, Shira, said at the start of the hearing, “She’s in hell. Does anyone understand what it means to be in hell?”
“Our daughters experience daily suffering there. They are harmed in body and soul. My Liri was, and still is — I don’t know because I have no information about her — a slave in the homes of Gazans,” she said.
“All the decision-makers — you need to understand that every day you witness the rape that happens in Gaza,” she continued. “These girls are raped daily and everyone ignores them. You close your eyes. I hear Liri every day screaming for help: ‘Mom, save me already.’ Liri’s soul is crushed, and I cannot speak about what has happened to her body.”
Yaffa Ohad, the aunt of Noa Argamani, attended the hearing instead of Argamani’s mother, who is dying of cancer. Ohad fainted during the hearing and required medical attention. Before she fainted, Ohad said since the testimony of Amit Soussana, the first hostage to go public with her testimony of sexual torture during her captivity, had “wiped the family out. The thoughts will not leave us alone.”
Soussana, a 40-year-old lawyer from Kfar Aza, told the New York Times that her Hamas captor forced her to perform a “sexual act on him” at gunpoint among other incidents of sexual assault, in a child’s bedroom.
Ohad also said that, due to the recently released confession of a Palestinian terrorist who said he raped Israeli women, “our days and nights have been intolerable.”
Several other family members also provided disturbing testimony about the abuse their loved ones may be enduring. Yarden Gonen, sister of hostage Romi Gonen, cited testimonies from first responders and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who found evidence showing that on Oct. 7 the terrorists were following orders permitting escalating levels of brutality against hostages over time, including rape.
“Women and men bound naked, burned alive, not just a few, a recurring pattern,” she said. “The terrorists came with notes tucked inside their vests. Inside the note was scribed, ‘If there is no time, just kill. But if you have more time, inflict a maim and then kill. Have a little more time? Torture and then kill. A little more time? Burn them alive and then kill them. If you have ample time, rape as long as you desire because it is permitted and it vindicates the resistance.’”
Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 people and took 253 others as hostages during their Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Over 100 hostages were released in November as part of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas brokered by foreign mediators.
Tuesday’s hearing underscored the mounting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to strike a deal with Hamas for the release of the civilians and soldiers still held in Gaza. Some relatives accused officials of failing to act with sufficient urgency as the 134 hostages approach 200 days since their captivity.
No government ministers attended the session.
“We have all been exposed to the testimonies. We need to bring them home. It is in our hands,” committee chairwoman Pnina Tamano-Shata said.
While the focus was on the plight of female hostages, families said male captives also face severe mistreatment.
The UN concluded in a report released last month that there is “clear and convincing information” that Hamas is perpetrating sexual violence against hostages in Gaza. The same UN report also found that Hamas likely committed widespread acts of gang-rape and torture against women on Oct. 7.
Mounting evidence has documented Hamas’ systematic use of torture and sexual violence, including mass rape, against the Israeli people during the onslaught.
The post ‘Raped Daily’: Former Israeli Hostages Recount Sexual Abuse by Hamas Terrorists as Families Plead for Action first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.