WASHINGTON — A US official said Monday that Hamas terrorists likely held back on freeing female hostages, leading to the end of a weeklong ceasefire with Israel, because it did not want them to speak publicly about sexual violence.

Israel and Hamas paused fighting in the Gaza Strip as part of a US- and Qatari-brokered deal to free hostages seized by the terrorists during the devastating onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, when 1,200 people were slaughtered and some 240 abducted.

Israel on Friday said it was resuming its military campaign as Hamas had not released all kidnapped women, after the Gaza-ruling terror group broke the ceasefire by firing rockets into Israel and failing to provide a list of hostages it intended to release.

“The fact that they continue to hold women hostages, the fact that they continue to hold children hostages, just the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over they’ve been holding hostage, and the reason this pause fell apart, is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in response to a question about growing evidence of Hamas rape and sexual abuse on October 7.

Miller, citing sensitivities in discussing treatment of captives, declined to give details on the treatment of the women.

But he said that the United States had “no reason to doubt” reports of sexual violence by Hamas.

“There is very little that I would put beyond Hamas when it comes to its treatment of civilians and particularly its treatment of women,” Miller said.

A young Israeli woman seen on October 7 in Gaza being taken captive while the seat of her sweatpants was covered in blood remains a hostage in Gaza.

Israeli police have also been exploring evidence of sexual violence during the October 7 attack. A senior police officer recently told the Knesset that an inquiry has gathered more than 1,500 testimonies. Allegations include gang rape and post-mortem mutilation.

Miller said that Israel has briefed the United States “extensively” on its finding into the October 7 attack, although US officials were not on the ground making independent assessments.

“But we have seen Hamas commit atrocities both on October 7 and since October 7, and we obviously condemn those atrocities and support Israel’s actions to hold Hamas accountable for them,” Miller said.

Campaigners in Israel have derided what they see as a muted international response to gender-based violence during the attack, with hundreds gathering Monday at the UN for a special session spearhead by the Israeli mission to raise awareness of the sexual crimes committed against women on October 7.

Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Hamas in a statement Monday rejected accusations of rape and sexual violence as “unfounded lies.”

Israeli attacks since October 7 have killed nearly 15,900 people in Gaza, about 70 percent of them women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The figures, which cannot be verified independently, do not differentiate between civilians and terrorists. They are also believed to include civilians killed by rockets launched by Palestinian terror groups that landed in Gaza.