First lady says Hamas sexual violence on Oct. 7 ‘has taken the human race many steps backward’

First Lady Michal Herzog issues a heartfelt plea for the world to do more to free the female hostages still being held in Gaza by the Hamas terror group, more than nine months after the October 7 attack.

“We need to face the facts,” Herzog writes in a column in Time magazine, elaborating on Hamas’s documented sexual violence during the onslaught. “This weaponizing of women’s bodies, this weaponizing of sexual assault and rape in warfare since Oct. 7, has taken the entire human race many steps backward. Civilization is failing these captives right now. And it is failing every one of us.”

“Where is the public outcry? Where is the outrage? Where is the vocal conviction, across the board, that this type of violence against women is unacceptable and will not pass in silence?… Where is the demand, wall to wall, that they must be brought home now?” demanded President Isaac Herzog’s wife.

“I, along with millions of other women, haven’t given up. Not on these young women. And not on our humanity. I call upon every person to speak out for all the hostages—women and men—still being held by terrorists and help bring them home.”