Sexual and physical abuse of women and minors who were evacuated to hotels:
horrifying evidence was revealed this morning (Tuesday) at a special hearing of the Committee for the Status of Women and Gender Equality regarding the prevention of violence in the places where residents from the south and the north were evacuated.
The discussion in the committee today, photo: Knesset Channel screenshot
Miri Frank, director of the welfare department at evacuee hotels in Jerusalem revealed protected problems among teenagers and said that young people sexually assaulted girls.
"There was a 23-year-old man who was in a relationship with a 13-year-old girl and her mother was not aware at all because she was in the chaos of the evacuation"
Residents of Nir Oz leave the Red Sea Hotel in Eilat (archive), photo: Yehuda Ben Yathach
Maya Oberbaum from the Union of Assistance Centers presented some of the complaints that had reached the union: "An evacuee exposed himself and urinated in front of children at the entrance of a hotel, an elderly evacuee hit a young girl in the elevator and he was transferred to another hotel in Tel Aviv, an evacuee called and said she was raped by a man who evacuees with her at the hotel. A girl told Because she was assaulted by a 15-year-old. A girl reported that someone exposed himself to her in the elevator. There are reports of sexual harassment in educational settings and we received a complaint about a security guard who harassed a girl. Preparatory students were sexually assaulted by evacuees."
The representative of the police, Sen. Merav Shatz revealed the number of reports of crimes: since the beginning of the evacuations, 40 cases of domestic violence have been opened from 380 hotels that include violations of exclusion orders, there are terrible crimes. In events with a family connection, there are 64 cases. There are a total of 116 cases." .
Liat Gal Cohen from the Center for Regional Government mentioned a case in which a mother told about her three-year-old daughter being stripped by an eight-year-old boy.
"We are dealing with meetings of men in their 40s and 50s with younger women. The situation creates a complex reality."
The chairman of the committee, MK Tamno Sheta, opened the discussion and said that at a time when there are tens of thousands of refugees in their country, the protection of the evacuees is in the first place: "Because everyone is in one place for a long time with very high friction, we understand that everything must be done to promote protection physically and mentally".
She also addressed the representatives of the government ministries and the police and demanded to receive complete data: "We must know what the exact picture of the situation is in each hotel. We need to give accurate treatment where we see a red light. Come to another discussion in two weeks with comprehensive data."
Husband and wife in the same compound - despite an exclusion order
Shai Kahan, deputy head of the government organization for Iron Sword evacuees in the Prime Minister's Office, commented on the situation of the 56,000 evacuees who are currently in hotels, the community, kibbutzim and rented apartments.
"The pressure cooker on the hotels is great and there are real phenomena of internal violence and external forces that penetrate the hotels. We know of cases where a husband and wife were admitted to the same premises even though the husband had an exclusion order. There are also struggles between the hotel management and evacuees who violate the hotel's hospitality rules. There is a phenomenon of children standing up in the morning and don't go to school and the parents are discouraged."
"The reporting threshold is decreasing"
MK Mati Sarfati Harkavi (Yesh Atid) said that: "The level of reporting in the war is going down.
When the whole settlement evacuates to one hotel, then many times the reports are handled internally.
Every evacuee center should have someone trained.
MK Debi Biton: In the particular hotel to which I was evacuated, I was exposed to 12-year-old children who drink alcohol and commit vandalism. Today, the situation is much calmer. You can see situations in the elevators of a husband telling his wife to shut up, and you don't know what's going on in their room. I see what's happening there, that Ticking bomb".
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