Israeli Hostage Says She Was Sexually Assaulted and Tortured in Gaza ( www.nytimes.com )

Ms. Soussana, 40, is the first Israeli to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted during captivity after the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel. In her interviews with The Times, conducted mostly in English, she provided extensive details of sexual and other violence she suffered during a 55-day ordeal.

Ms. Soussana’s personal account of her experience in captivity is consistent with what she told two doctors and a social worker less than 24 hours after she was freed on Nov. 30. Their reports about her account state the nature of the sexual act; The Times agreed not to disclose the specifics.

. . .

For months, Hamas and its supporters have denied that its members sexually abused people in captivity or during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. This month, a United Nations report said that there was “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had suffered sexual violence and there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence occurred during the raid, while acknowledging the “challenges and limitations” of examining the issue.

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assassin_aragorn ,

Well. This is pretty significant. I would say it's rather damning evidence that considerably raises the bar to doubt these claims.

There's a lot I could say here. Hamas is a bunch reprehensible fucks. It's disappointing that we needed concrete evidence because of how untrustworthy the IDF is. But I think the most salient and important point here is that there is no "good guy" or "right side" among the war combatants. It's awful people fighting awful people. Hamas and the IDF both deserve nothing but contempt and scorn, and both should be dismantled for their crimes against humanity.

I've tried to be very precise with my wording because none of what I just said applies to the Palestinian nor Israeli people. The civilians and innocent people are caught between two legions of hell and are the ones paying the price. The kidnapped and tortured Israelis, the Palestinian people -- both of them are suffering at the hands of both Hamas and the Israeli government.

Neither of them care about the civilians. They use them as lambs for sacrifice and control the flow of information to manufacture hate and support for the war. It's become readily apparent that the IDF and Hamas just want to keep fighting, and they're manipulating the civilians to support them. If both peoples were getting the true, unfiltered information -- sights of dying Palestinian children, demolished buildings, accounts of Israeli hostages -- I think they'd be appalled at what "their side" is doing.

I really hope the majority would be appalled, because there can't be any peace until they recognize their shared suffering and humanity. And to be clear, the majority of suffering is clearly inflicted on the Palestinians.

Edit: I'm not angry at the downvotes but damn am I disappointed. You'd think "fuck the people genociding others and fuck the people taking hostages" would be an uncontroversial position, but here we are.

frostmore ,

i noticed most lemmey users here exhibit the same kind of behaviour before the exodus from reddit.

very left leaning and wouldn't hesitate to employ cancel culture if facts don't fit their narratives.

at least there are sane usera like yourself have clearly drawn the line that condemning hamas doesn't equate condemning the palestinians.

evidence have shown,if you condemn hamas,somehow or rather that's Israel's fault and anyone who does it is dehumanising palestinans,never mind the fact that there were palestinians celebrating the death of innocents and giving out sweets to children.

assassin_aragorn ,

never mind the fact that there were palestinians celebrating the death of innocents and giving out sweets to children.

This is incorrect. Hamas told people that a prison was liberated, and that's why they were celebrating. They had no idea that Hamas had killed innocent people like that.

Think about it -- where does information in Gaza come from? A lot of it is coming from Hamas itself. They're going to make themselves look good and lie about what's actually going on.

frostmore ,

this is the first i am hearing if this.

mind sharing where you got that info from??

assassin_aragorn ,

Yep, here you go.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/magazine/israelis-palestinians-peace-forum.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gE0.77H3.6ZVCelo_wPu1&ugrp=u

It's a really good article in general, it does a great job of highlighting the disconnect in communication and how Israel and Hamas are manipulating the news.

frostmore ,

thank you!

lettruthout ,

Believe whatever you want in the privacy of your own mind, but this whole conflict wouldn't be happening if some crazy religious people hadn't stolen lots of land in the first place, and then persecuted the remaining inhabitants.

gravitas_deficiency ,

The “crazy religious people” and “who the land belongs to” switches around a lot depending on what year you pick as a baseline - you’re gonna have to be more specific.

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