She is the first to say so.
Amit Soussana, 40, recounts in a long interview with the New York Times published Tuesday March 26 the sexual violence she suffered in captivity while she was a Hamas hostage, kidnapped during the October 7 attacks.
The Israeli lawyer spoke for more than 8 hours with journalists from the American daily in mid-March, who were also able to interview the doctors who took care of her after her release, as well as a social worker who accompanied her during the first hours.
They finally had access to his medical file, as well as photos and videos which attest to his story.
“Have you had your period?”
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The forty-year-old details having been kidnapped from her home, located on kibbutz Kfar Aza, by “at least 10 men” on the Saturday when the attacks took place, then beaten numerous times in Gaza.
After a few days in captivity, one of his captors began to question him about his sex life.
She notably claims to have been left alone in a child's bedroom, ankle tied to a chain.
“Sometimes a jailer would come in, sit next to her on the bed, lift up her T-shirt and touch her,” wrote the New York Times.
Read alsoOctober 7 attacks: gang rapes, attacks in front of loved ones… what a report on sexual violence reveals
He was particularly pressing on the question of his hostage's rules.
“Every day he asked me:
Have you had your period?
Did you have your period?
When you have your period, when it's over, you will wash, you will take a shower and you will wash your clothes
,” she said.
Around October 18, Amit Soussana's period arrived, but due to lack of food and fatigue, it only lasted a day.
She then managed to make her jailer, Muhammad, believe that these continued for six days.
The hostage describes the man as “chubby, bald, of average height”.
Pulled into a bedroom, threatened with a weapon
But around October 24, when she was finally able to take a shower, the man assaulted her again.
While she was in the bathroom, he entered by surprise.
When she grabbed a towel to cover herself, he hit her with the gun.
“He sat me on the edge of the bathtub.
And I closed my legs.
I resisted.
He continued to punch me and pointed the gun at my face.
He then dragged me into the bedroom.”
She remembers a children's room, decorated with posters of the cartoon “Sponge Bob”.
Also read: Hamas sexual violence on October 7: behind the scenes of a long, painful and difficult investigation
It was at this moment, by “pointing a gun at her head”, that her jailer “forced her to perform a sexual act”.
The New York Times specifies that the victim gave numerous details about this attack, but that these will not be made public.
The doctors and a social worker who took care of Amit Soussana upon his release separately confirmed to American journalists that she had reported this traumatic episode in the early hours.
The ex-hostage said she was detained in approximately 5 to 6 locations, including houses, an office and a tunnel.
Hamas has since the beginning denied any assault or sexual violence against hostages or during the October 7 terrorist attack.
A UN report published on March 4, however, reported "clear and convincing information" establishing that certain hostages had suffered sexual violence and that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that sexual violence took place on the day of the attacks.
A testimony “for all women”
This chilling testimony was received with horror by the Forum of Families of Hostages and Disappeared: “The courageous testimony of Amit Soussana which details his horrific captivity is one of the many poignant accounts of hostages held by Hamas.
Like the survivors before her, Amit's personal experience reinforces the UN's conclusions,” the members responded in a statement released this Tuesday evening.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also reacted on the social network
Amit Soussana speaks for all those who cannot speak.
She speaks for all the victims of Hamas' despicable sexual crimes and abuse.
She speaks for all women everywhere.
The whole world has the moral duty to stand with Amit - and all the victims - in condemning Hamas's brutal…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) March 26, 2024
Amit Soussana was released on November 30 after 55 days of captivity, along with Franco-Israeli Mia Schem.
During an interview given to Israeli television in December, she claimed not to have been raped by her jailer "because there were his wife and children in the next room, that's the only reason ".
A third ex-hostage, Moran Stella Yanai, had also confided to Le Parisien in February “that she was not authorized to talk about this subject”.