At a special conference held today in the Knesset (Tuesday) of the lobby for the abductees, with the participation of prisoners who returned from captivity and the families of the abductees, additional harsh testimonies from captivity in Gaza were raised, with an emphasis on the situation of the women held captive by Hamas and the sexual abuse they experience.
Families of the abductees at the special Knesset hearing, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Aviva Siegel, who returned from Hamas captivity, told the hearing about what she saw when she met abducted women in Gaza: "One of the girls came back after she went to the bathroom for a moment and I saw on her face that she was upset, so I got up and hugged her. We weren't allowed to hug and I can see that she's closing and quiet and she's not her."
"Excuse me, but the motherfucker touched her and he wouldn't even let me hug her after it happened. When she told me, I told her, 'I'm sorry, but it's hard for me to hear it because it was hard for me.' There was another case of one who came and they thought she was a soldier, an army officer, and they tortured her next to me. And I'm witnessing it, I'm witnessing what's happening there, what's happening there is just a catastrophe."
MK Shelly Tal Meron in a Knesset debate: "The thought of what a woman goes through in captivity - it could have been me and each of us" // Knesset Channel
MK Karine Elharrar said: "I will say something that is not very popular in this building, but the only week we saw abductees returning home was when the fighting stopped, when oxygen returned to our lungs. I have no doubt that all members of the government and the entire State of Israel, with all its components, want the abductees to return home, but when we ask ourselves whether we are doing everything, including everything, we must ask this question as well."
"No one can imagine what you're going through," Elharrar added. "And we also don't want you to continue this crazy routine. People talk all the time about national resilience. The national resilience of the State of Israel will be deeply damaged if not everyone returns home now."
Gal Hirsch, Coordinator of POWs and MIAs in Iron Sword War. Left: Elharrar, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
One of the most difficult moments of the hearing came when the mother of 27-year-old Eliya Cohen, who was kidnapped in Gaza, cried out in tears as she held a picture of her son: "What is this thing, it's just not normal that for 95 days no one comes in and no one sees him," she said, referring to the great uncertainty surrounding her son's condition.
"Nobody talks about the men who are there, everyone needs to go home today, not just the women who are really poor, not the children, everyone just everyone. These children are the next generation of the State of Israel, what is happening to you that they are still there and not here, why do we have to go to Kerem Shalom and block truckloads of humanitarian equipment entering Gaza and no one goes and takes care of medicine for our children and no one worries about being seen. I've been hoping and praying for 95 days, but there's a limit, enough already."
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