Report to be submitted to UN |  Grim details of abuse, including sexual & psychological torment, whipping, branding with hot  iron and  isolation surface

Protesters at a rally calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv on Saturday —AFP

Hostages held in Gaza were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse, starvation, burns and medical neglect, according to a new report by the Israeli Health Ministry that will be submitted to the United Nations this week. Many continue to suffer even after they were released. Hamas has repeatedly denied abuse of the hostages.

This is the first formal report by the Health Ministry about the hostages’ experiences in captivity.. The report is based on interviews with the medical and welfare teams that treated more than 100 Israeli and foreign hostages, most of whom were released in late November 2023, during  a brief truce between Israel and Hamas. Eight hostages were rescued by the Israeli military.

The hostages include more than 30 children and teenagers, a few of whom were found to have been bound, beaten or branded with a heated object. The , report is  to be submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Edwards and was published late on Saturday. Women reported sexual assault by the captors at gunpoint.

Men were beaten, starved, branded, held bound in isolation and denied access to a bathroom, the report said. Some were denied treatment for injuries and medical conditions.

A Times of Israel quoting sources  said two Israeli teenage hostages were forced to perform sexual acts on one another and their captors sexually abused them. “They were held bound and were beaten throughout their captivity. Signs of binding, scars, and marks consistent with trauma were found,” the report says.

Two young children had burn marks on their lower limbs – the result of a deliberate branding with a heated object. Both children and adults described it as an “extremely traumatic experience”, the Health Ministry report said.

“Some hostages were kept in the dark for days with their hands and feet bound, and received little food or water. They were beaten all over their bodies, and some had hair pulled out. “On several occasions, captors forced women of all ages to undress while others, including the captors, watched. Some women reported that the captors sexually assaulted them.

Some said they were tied to beds while their captors stared at them.”

Israel has previously presented reports and released testimonies from hostages detailing sexual abuses in captivity, which Hamas has denied. Some former hostages have spoken publicly.  The Health Ministry report did not identify any of the hostages by name or age, to protect their privacy.

A total of 251 hostages were abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. About half of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed by Israeli authorities to still be alive.