Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) slammed some of his fellow members of Congress, as well as the United Nations, for refusing to condemn Hamas after a released hostage revealed in harrowing detail the sexual assault she received at the hands of the terrorists while in captivity.
Amit Soussana was one of the roughly 250 Israelis who were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel, and she was among roughly 100 of them who were released during the weeklong temporary ceasefire deal in late November. She is the first former hostage to speak out and accuse the terrorists of sexual assault while in captivity.
During her time in captivity, she was repeatedly beaten and kept in various homes and the significant Hamas underground tunnel infrastructure, according to the New York Times, which came out with a detailed article about Soussana’s experience in Gaza on Tuesday.
“Some members of Congress won’t condemn this. Some dismissed this as ‘propaganda.’ The UN won’t even condemn Hamas. Hamas is not a group of ‘militants’ or engaging in ‘insurgency’ — just rapists and cowards hiding behind innocent civilians,” Fetterman wrote on social media. “Israel absolutely has the right to pursue and dismantle Hamas to surrender or neutralization. True peace is possible through this imperative.”
One of the men involved in her detention, who called himself Muhammad, would at times lift her shirt and touch her, and in one instance, he forced her to perform a sexual act on him at gunpoint. On that day, he unlocked the chain that kept her to the bed and allowed her to take a bath.
“He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead,” Soussana recalled, adding that he forced her to remove her towel and groped her. Muhammad then dragged her back to the children’s bedroom she had been held in, and “then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” she explained.
Soussana told multiple doctors and social workers about her experience in the days after her release.
She lived in the Kfar Azza kibbutz, about a mile and a half from the Gaza border. On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists overpowered the border wall, and more than a thousand fighters poured into southern Israel and carried out significant attacks in communities nearby, such as Kfar Azza. Her house was lit on fire, and she was pulled out of her home by about 10 men who dragged her back to Gaza, though she put up a fight.
“I didn’t want to let them take me to Gaza like an object, without a fight,” Soussana said. “I still kept believing that someone will come and rescue me.”
When she was evaluated by doctors after her return, they found she had fractures in her right eye socket, cheek, knee, and nose and severe bruising on her knee and back.
Earlier this week, the United States decided not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire. The U.S. had vetoed two earlier versions of a resolution related to the war, while it put forth the third, which was vetoed by China and Russia. The U.S.’s decision to abstain on this vote, which allowed for it to pass, infuriated Israeli officials.
While she is the first formerly held hostage to speak publicly about being the victim of sexual violence,
U.N. investigators found “clear and convincing” evidence that Hamas has committed sexual violence against the hostages, according to a report released earlier this month.
“Based on the information it gathered, the mission team found clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, has been committed against hostages and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity,” the U.N.’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict said.
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Fetterman was not the only U.S. lawmaker to react to Soussana’s story. His colleague, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), added, “I will never understand why the Left loves Hamas and defends its cruel, barbaric misogyny.”
Hamas is holding about 100 hostages, though their well-being remains unclear. Israel and Hamas have pursued a second ceasefire agreement through intermediaries, but there have been no breakthroughs for months. The U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian governments have acted as conduits for a possible agreement.