‘Unfathomable acts of horror’: Israel says hostages, including children, now getting branded with hot object

JERUSALEM – Israel has submitted a report to the United Nations from the country’s health ministry, which outlines the abuse Israeli hostages suffered at the hands of their Gazan captors – cataloging physical and mental torture – and the lasting effect it has had on them, including children.

The Health Ministry’s report, which it submitted to Alice Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, is compiled from the testimonies of hostages who were released in the first – and to date, only – deal in November 2023.

It also includes accounts from hostages who were rescued in IDF operations. It details how they were burned and beaten, starved and humiliated, as well as how the abuse impacted their mental and physical health, even long after they were freed.

1. Hostages (including children!) were purposely branded with a hot object

2. One hostage described being sexually assaulted at gunpoint, others also reported sexual assault

3. Women were forced to undress in front of captors and tied to beds as they stared

— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) December 28, 2024

Descriptions of brutality and torture make for excruciating reading, especially testimonies about physical and sexual torture directed at men, women, and children. The report breaks down the abuse into three general areas: Torture by withholding medical treatment or causing intentional pain during treatment, starvation, poor nutrition and holding of hostages in harsh sanitary conditions, and psychological abuse.

The first section describes how those who were wounded in the Oct. 7 attacks and taken back to Gaza as trophies were given entirely rudimentary medical attention.

“Fractures, shrapnel wounds, and burns were treated inadequately, leading to complications which required
additional surgeries, which could have been prevented with proper care. Upon arrival in Israel, intensive treatment was given to the returned hostages,” the report states. There are also descriptions of medical procedures without anesthesia, as well as chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, and hypothyroidism, leading to severe short-term deterioration. Also, several older women required urgent life-saving treatment due to untreated hypertension and hypothyroidism.

Netanyahu: “I met a few days ago with the president of the International Red Cross and handed her a box containing medicine for our hostages held captive in Gaza. I asked her to deliver it over to Hamas. She refused.” pic.twitter.com/HXUKhWOz5E

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) December 25, 2023

When Israelis saw the condition in which the released hostages returned in that first deal, public pressure – as well as a sense of national horror up to and including the government – catalyzed enormous pressure on international bodies – particularly the Red Cross – to deliver life-saving medicines to those captives in the worst physical condition. They refused. Considering its abysmal record in missing the signs of Nazi brutality toward Jews during the Holocaust, we need not be surprised by this position.

The report also details how hostages were largely starved, only given meager rations, as well as being deprived of sunlight, and hence suffering from Vitamin D deficiencies. On average, the captives lost between 18-35 pounds in weight, approximately 10% to 17% of body weight.

Inadequate nutrition can lead to a number of complications, including delayed wound and fracture recovery, and a weakened immune system. Severe malnutrition can impair cognitive function and cause mental health problems. In children, it may hinder normal development and growth.

The captors attempted to fatten up hostages in the few days before their release, which put them at risk of Refeeding Syndrome. There are also allegations that captives were injected with drugs in advance of the transfer to make them seem more pliable and that the conditions of their incarceration were less harsh than reported.

“The poor quality of food and water, combined with unsanitary conditions, led to increased morbidity among the hostages. Many suffered from diarrhea, abdominal pain, and sometimes constipation. They had limited access to showers and returned with skin infections, including dermatitis, the report cited.

The litany of psychological trauma is the longest section of the Health Ministry’s report and provides a harrowing account of the means and ways Hamas – and other Gazan captors – attempted to extract the most mental anguish.

An eight-page report published today describes from the testimonies of survivors of captivity how Hamas terrorists abuse the hostages in captivity, among the horrific testimonies:

Two teenagers held together during captivity were tied up for part of the time with their hands… pic.twitter.com/CI6Cc9LaUs

— נועה מגיד | Noa magid (@NoaMagid) December 29, 2024

The events of Oct. 7 were traumatic in and of themselves. Men, women, and children were either aware or witnessed the murder and sometimes sexual assaults of either family or community members.

“The captives were transported to Gaza in open vehicles, often alongside the bodies of those murdered. They endured beatings, humiliation, and verbal, physical, and sexual violence during the journey,” according to the report.

It highlighted how hostages’ captors attempted to break their morale and torture them psychologically, with the aim of making them easier to control. Some captives witnessed the killing of other captives, further deepening their sense of helplessness and hopelessness, as well as seemingly arbitrary transfers from one place to another.

“In captivity, the hostages were often subjected to solitary confinement, poor sanitation, severe medical neglect, lack of sleep, starvation, sexual abuse, violence, threats, and brainwashing through media designed to break their spirit and make them submissive,” the report added.

The report concluded with the ongoing psychological and physical trauma, which nearly all the returned hostages suffer from, and the length of time needed for them to even attempt to heal. Some were too afraid to respond to the Health Ministry for fear of the danger they felt they might put family members still in Hamas captivity in, were they to do so.

There was even a dark prognosis for the hostages remaining in Gazan captivity, and whether, considering they have been held for nearly 400 days more than some of the hostages interviewed in the report, they will ever be able to return to some semblance of normal life if they were to be released.

Health Minister Uriel Basso said, “The report we are submitting to the U.N. is a harrowing testimony to the brutal experiences suffered by the hostages in Hamas captivity – cruel violence, psychological abuse, physical torment, and unfathomable acts of horror. These actions cannot be tolerated. The report highlights the horrors endured by the hostages and reveals the brutality of the enemy with whom Israel is engaged. The testimonies presented in this report serve as a wake-up call for the international community to apply increased pressure on Hamas and its supporters to release all hostages without delay … It is a moral and humanitarian imperative, and the time to act is running out.”