The U.S. suspects that Hamas is refusing to release female hostages to prevent them from revealing the horrors they experienced in captivity.
Israeli officials believe roughly 18 women are still in Hamas’ custody, many of whom were kidnapped from an October music festival.
The State Department spokesman highlighted this issue, linking it to the collapse of the cease-fire. (Trending: Tucker Reveals The Moment He Became A Full-Blown Trump Supporter)
“It seems that one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage — and the reason this pause fell apart — is that they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
“Among the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that Hamas committed on Oct. 7 were also sexual crimes, sexual assaults, rapes, that were part, that were a systematic part of their attack, of the massacre, and we are expecting a strong condemnation,” said Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, an associate professor at Bar-Ilan University.
“We expected recognition of that. We expected a clear and loud statement that says that there is no justification for using the bodies of women as a weapon of war. None of this came up until now.”
Israel has documented extensive instances of rape and sexual assault, urging the United Nations to take action.
The delayed condemnation of the attack and the response from Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Hamas’ use of rape as a weapon of war have faced criticism.
Israel claims roughly 137 hostages remain in Gaza, with uncertainty about their well-being.
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