https://www.foxnews.com/world/israel-sends-report-un-brutal-treatment-used-terrorists-hostages-gaza
Warning: This article includes graphic and disturbing accounts from the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
In a new report by the Israeli Ministry of Health, recently submitted to the United Nations, hostages who were freed from Hamas captivity described how they were subjected to unimaginable suffering. Among the chilling testimonies, two children revealed they were bound and beaten throughout their captivity, with scars and marks of trauma evident on their bodies. Others reported deliberate burning with heated objects, leaving permanent injuries.
Women detailed horrifying sexual violence, including assaults at gunpoint and forced undressing in front of captors. Men also endured sexual abuse, prolonged starvation, severe beatings, and torture involving branding with hot metal.
Many hostages suffered significant weight loss, with children losing up to 18% of their body weight. Unsanitary conditions led to infections, gastrointestinal illnesses, and other severe health complications. These atrocities, coupled with the systematic use of physical and psychological abuse as tools of oppression, paint a grim picture of the hostages’ ordeal.
While some have been freed, 99 remain in captivity, still enduring these unimaginable conditions 14 months after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
Among those still held is Or Levy, whose wife was murdered during the Oct. 7 attack. Or’s brother, Michael Levy, shared his anguish in an interview, describing the devastating impact of the Health Ministry’s report.
Levy expressed deep frustration with the international community, particularly the United Nations, and said he holds little hope for meaningful action after the report. “For some reason, the Israeli side is not counted as human,” he told Fox News Digital. “The U.N. ignores the fact that Hamas is committing crimes against humanity.”
Levy represented the hostages’ families in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council last month. “When I addressed the Security Council, I wanted them to hear a personal story. They need to understand that there cannot be lives that are worth more than others.”
“When you see how inhumane and horrible the conditions that the hostages are in, and knowing that my brother is one of them… it kills me,” he said. “Thinking about my brother, who is almost six feet three, trying to stand up in dark, airless tunnels less than six feet tall – it’s unbearable.”