From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
WATCH: Released Gaza hostage recounts seeing other hostages tortured, sexually abused
Aviva Siegel, a former hostage who was released from Gaza in late November after being abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, gives harrowing testimony at a Knesset meeting hosted by the lobby for releasing the remaining hostages.
Siegel says a young female hostage returned from the bathroom looking distraught, and when she got up to hug her, a terrorist came in and prevented her from embracing the fellow hostage.
“I saw that she was withdrawing into herself and not being herself,” Siegel says. “And sorry, I will say unpretty words, but this son of a bitch touched her. And he didn’t even let me hug her after it happened. It’s terrible, simply terrible. I told her I was sorry.”
Siegel, whose husband Keith is still being held in Gaza, doesn’t name the sexually abused hostage.
In another case, she says another hostage was tortured by the Hamas captors since they thought she was an officer in the IDF.
“They tortured her next to me. And I witnessed it. I witnessed what happened there. What’s happening there is simply a catastrophe. It can’t go on,” she says, urging the release of the remaining 132 hostages seized on October 7.
"For 51 days I've been through hell, there are a million horrific stories I could tell".
Former hostage, Aviva Sigal with a distressing testimony: They tortured a woman hostage who they thought was an army officer next to me. Another woman hostage returned from the restroom… pic.twitter.com/0alMSw6dy7— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) January 9, 2024
