For the first time, former hostages of Hamas-Israel conflict in the Gaza Strip have gone public with their stories. The testimonies, released on May 16, present an in-depth account of the torture and other inhuman treatment they endured during their captivity.
For the past four years, an international investigative team led by Israeli terrorism expert Dr. Ephraim Lavie has examined reports of mistreatment and torture inflicted on Hamas hostages over the past decade, based on numerous interviews with former captives and their families.
The team, dubbed Palestinian-Israeli Victims of Torture (PIVT), documented the torture methods used by Hamas, including beatings, electric shocks, and psychological torment. The captives reported that their captors threatened them with rape and killing their families, forced them to sign false confessions that they had committed crimes, and kept them in solitary confinement for months.
The reports also revealed that some of the captives had been kept in overcrowded cells with insufficient ventilation and without access to medical care. This is a stark contrast to the conditions in Israeli prisons, where inmates enjoy more humane physical conditions.
The testimonies are evidence of Hamas’ systemic policy of cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners, which is a violation of basic international humanitarian law principles. According to Dr. Lavie, “Hamas and its members and affiliates must be held accountable for their human rights violations.”
In order to protect the witnesses and their families from the threats and intimidation they experience, the PIVT team requested that their personal information not be published.
The stories revealed by the hostages explain the importance of continuing to investigate and expose Hamas’ gross human rights violations, even when doing so may be risky. As Dr. Lavie states, “We hope that our report will be a catalyst for change and a recognition of the importance of taking action to protect human rights and the rule of law.”