Israeli Hostages Endured Violent Sexual Assault in Gaza, Doctors Confirm

  National Review

"Doctors responsible for treating the released Israeli hostages have confirmed that female hostages suffered violent sexual assaults at the hands of Hamas captors.

"The doctors confirmed to USA Today that Hamas sexually assaulted “many” of the released female hostages aged 12-48, adding that the hostages “came to us as patients with the trauma of those who witnessed very severe sexual assaults.” Upon their release, the hostages received pregnancy tests and were tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

“We know that female hostages were raped during their captivity under control of Hamas,” one Israeli military official said.

"Hamas still holds 19 women and two children captive. Although terrorists claim that the remaining women are female soldiers, U.S. officials have said that Hamas’s refusal to release its remaining female captives is likely because the terror group doesn’t want women to reveal the horrors of what happened to them in captivity.

" 'It seems that one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage — and the reason this pause fell apart — is that they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier this month.

One of the women still held hostage is Naama Levy, an Israeli woman whose abduction quickly became a viral, harrowing image at the forefront of the Israel-Hamas war. A video emerged on October 7 of Hamas terrorists dragging the 19-year-old Levy by her hair into a Jeep. Her hands were bound, and pants bloodied.

“There’s a reason why women and children were prioritized first for release: younger women are at greater risk for further trauma,” Levy’s mother, Levy Shachar wrote in a recent op-ed. “Just as women and girls are more vulnerable to more forms of violence, they are also more vulnerable to suffering from infections and pregnancy from sexual violence. The longer Naama is held in captivity, the more violence she is subjected to, the more likely she will suffer the consequences of lifelong post-traumatic stress.” . . .