‘Shadows of children’: UN Security Council hears of plight of child hostages in Gaza
Ambassador Danon claims discussion is first time Security Council addressed issue of Israeli hostages in Gaza, emphasizes accounts of sexual abuse in captivity, accuses UN of apathy
The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday heard of the chilling effects of captivity on Israeli child hostages held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza in a meeting requested by Israel and its allies.
The discussion was convened at the request of Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon along with ambassadors of the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the murder by Hamas of six Israeli hostages late last week. Their bodies were recovered on Saturday, and autopsies revealed they had been killed a day or two earlier.
Hamas seized a total of 251 hostages during a massacre in which thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people amid acts of brutality and sexual assault and starting the ongoing war.
Danon billed the Security Council meeting as the body’s first official discussion of the hostage issue, though the official agenda merely described it as “the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question,” and the remarks by diplomats largely focused on accusations of Israeli wrongdoing in its prosecution of the war.
The council has me on the plight of the hostages before.
At the meeting, Dr. Efrat Bron Harlev of Schneider Children’s Hospital in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva testified to her experience treating Israeli children who spent more than a month in captivity in Gaza before their release as part of a weeklong truce agreement last November.
“When they arrived, they did not look like children. They looked like shadows of children. No impressions on their faces — they were not happy, they were not crying, they were mostly very silent. [They asked us] questions like, ‘Are we allowed to look out the window? May I step out of bed?’”
Soon, I’ll speak at the Security Council's first official discussion on the hostage situation and present our demand to condemn Hamas and call for the immediate release of all hostages. We won’t rest till they are home!
Watch the discussion live >> https://t.co/G6ePawM2QC pic.twitter.com/iGFavOL0ux— Danny Danon ???????? דני דנון (@dannydanon) September 4, 2024
Immediately following Harlev’s testimony, the council heard from Yuli Novak, head of the left-wing Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, who condemned Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip since October 7 and asserted they were part of a larger “cruel and unjust apartheid regime.”
“Our government is cynically exploiting our collective trauma. In Gaza, this has taken the form of expulsion, starvation, killing and destruction on an unprecedented scale,” she claimed. “This goes beyond revenge.”
Danon said on social media that the council insisted on having Novak speak alongside Harlev in the name of “balance.”
Danon presented images of each of the six slain hostages, captured from videos recorded by their captors and released online as propaganda this week. Along with each photo, he gave a short description of each hostage, their background, and interests.
The Israeli ambassador also emphasized the sexual abuse to which Hamas has subjected Israeli hostages in captivity, citing graphic testimony from released captive Amit Soussana, who “was dragged from her home by Hamas terrorists and thrown into living hell.
“She was held in a child’s bedroom, chained to the floor, and at the mercy of her guard. He would enter the room, lift her shirt, touch her, grope her, and dehumanize her in every way imaginable. One morning, as she tried to wash herself chained in a bathroom, her guard stormed in, gun in hand, hitting her repeatedly, dragging her back to the bedroom, where he forced himself on her,” recalled Danon.
He also invoked the words of released hostage Maya Regev, who “testified that every woman held by Hamas has been sexually abused — every single one.”
Danon accused the Security Council of apathy in the face of the hostages’ abuse, telling the body, “If you would truly care for the Palestinian people, and truly wanted to achieve an end to this war that Hamas started, you would officially draft and pass a resolution designating Hamas as a terrorist organization and condemning Hamas for their hostage taking.”
The Security Council meeting in New York came on the same day that October 7 survivor Sabine Taasa, whose husband and 17-year-old son were killed in the Hamas massacre, testified before UN experts in Geneva, urging them to stop blaming Israel for the war and focus on the trauma inflicted on Israeli children.
Danon took aim at pressure placed on Israel to make concessions in its ongoing negotiations with Hamas for a hostage-ceasefire deal, telling the Security Council, “Hamas has remained steadfast in its rejection of all proposals, and yet the international community continues to direct its pressure at us.”
Danon said Israel was committed to returning its hostages and willing to make a deal.
Ninety-seven of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
