A former hostage of the Hamas terrorist group described the sexual abuse she had endured at the hands of her captors in an interview with The New York Times Tuesday.
The former captive, Amit Soussana, has become the first released Israeli hostage held in Gaza that has publicly spoken about being subject to such molestation.
On the day of her abduction, the 40-year-old attorney and Sderot native, described herself as living alone in a small house in Kibbutz Kfar Azza on the morning of the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel. Her home is located only 1.5 miles from the border with Gaza.
Soussana said that she proceeded to a bomb shelter in her residence after hearing public air-raid warnings broadcasting throughout her community. As she waited for the presumed rocket attack to subside, she told the newspaper that she noticed the sound of encroaching gunfire.
After experiencing what she described as a loud explosion, Soussana told The Times that approximately 10 armed terrorists entered her bedroom and began to beat her before the terrorists transported the injured woman to a waiting vehicle at the nearby border.
Soussana described the first days of her ordeal by saying that she was held in an “upscale” private residence that she felt had been prepared for her arrival. She would be later attached to a window frame with an ankle-chain to prevent her escape.
Approximately four days into her captivity, Soussana recalled that the homeowner, a middle-aged man calling himself Mahmoud, led her by her shackles to the bedroom of his son Muhammad. It was at this location where the former captive said the abuse began.
Soussana painfully described to the newspaper that while being held in an almost completely dark room, Muhammad would frequently grope her and inquire about her sexual history and menstrual cycle.
On one horrific day when she was bathing, Soussana said that Muhammad entered the washroom holding a gun and demanded that she accompany him to a nearby bedroom. Her refusal of the request led her jailor to start punching her which resulted in an eventual capitulation. The prisoner reported that her naked body was grabbed, and her abuser forced Soussana to “commit a sexual act on him.”
The report noted that her allegations are similar to the statements she gave to social workers immediately following her November release.
“She speaks for all the victims of Hamas’s despicable sexual crimes and abuse. She speaks for all women everywhere. The whole world has the moral duty to stand with Amit — and all the victims — in condemning Hamas’s brutal terror, and in demanding the immediate return of all the hostages,” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in a post on X, praising Soussana for her willingness to give testimony.
Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim said that it was “difficult to believe the story unless it was designed by some security officers.”
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