At the conference of the lobby for victims of sexual and gender-based violence in the war, held today (Tuesday) in the Knesset, abductees who were released came and told about the abuse of women held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. “The terrorists bring the girls inappropriate clothes, I can’t imagine what they feel. It’s impossible to breathe,” described Aviva Siegel, who was kidnapped and released from captivity.
“I felt the girls as if they were my daughters,” she said. “The terrorists turned the girls into their dolls, dolls on a string with which you can do what you want and when you want.”
“There wasn’t a minute that we didn’t go through something of abuse in all respects,” Aviva added. “And they are still there, surviving, barely. I am still there, my body is there.” According to her, the boys also go through the same abuse as the girls: “Maybe they don’t get pregnant, but they are also puppets on a string.”
Aviva Siegel is sleeping tonight in a tent outside the Prime Minister’s residence together with her family members. “I barely slept, I remembered Gaza,” she shares. “At night in Gaza bombs fell. Tonight I heard cars, trucks and an ambulance and that was the difference. I’m still there. My body is there and my heart is there. My heart is exploding, I can’t bear it – how come everyone is silent?”
Chen Goldstein Almog, who was also released from captivity along with her children, spoke about the fear that the girls and women in captivity will become pregnant as a result of rape by the terrorists. “There are girls in captivity who haven’t had their period for some time, and maybe that’s what we should pray for – that their bodies will protect them and they won’t get pregnant from rape.”
Discussion on lobbying for victims of sexual and gender violence in the War of Iron Swords
Yamit Ashkenazi, the sister of Doron Steinbracher who is held captive by Hamas, slammed the members of the Knesset in her lobby for victims of war violence: “We don’t need you to hug us – we need to hug our loved ones. It is very possible that now she is being raped in a tunnel, how can you go to sleep at night?”
On the night of October 7, the ZAKA organization evacuated 237 bodies of those murdered by Hamas. Haim Otumazgin from the ZAKA organization who handled the bodies of the murdered described harsh graphic evidence: “My eyes saw women whose clothes were stripped from them. We don’t have a video of what happened there, but it’s clear that the victims were not there in this way. We saw women shot in their private parts.”
Aviva Siegel, who was released from Hamas captivity Photo: Knesset Channel
Haim described in detail a witness to a case of rape in one of the houses in the Gaza Envelope: “I entered the house with gunshot marks on the door, the family in the MMD and I see in the opposite room a young girl lying on the bed with her clothes rolled up, without an undergarment. She was shot in the head. This room has been broken into, make a selection and choose who to handcuff, who to kill and who to take to the other room. We don’t have pictures of what was there, but the pictures engraved in our heads tell an unequivocal story that cannot be interpreted in any other way.” It’s hard to contain the event.”
Chen Golstein-Almog and her daughter Agam, who were released from captivity Photo: The 12 News
The discussion in the lobby was initiated by Knesset members Tel Miron Mish Atid, and MK Tzaga Malko from the Likud. “We could find ourselves in a few months holding discussions about abortions in advanced months, about the religion of babies who may be born, about their legal status. How can one even imagine such a discourse within Israeli society? We must not get to this situation,” MK Sheli Tal Miron said at the beginning of the debate. “We don’t want to see pictures of helicopters bringing coffins with Israeli flags. We want the abductees alive and now.”
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