The father of an 18-year-old Israeli hostage, one of the youngest prisoners still held by Hamas, was raped after his former kidnappers refused to answer difficult questions about his daughter's condition. He said he was worried that it might happen.
Eli Albag, the father of Lili Albag, who was kidnapped from her bed by a Palestinian terrorist group during the deadly attack on Israel on October 7, said on Monday that his daughter was alive but in poor condition after being released as a hostage. He said that he realized that he was placed in a difficult environment. He could be sexually attacked.
“They say they have no food, no water, no showers, sleeping on the floor, very cold and humid, 40 meters.” [130 feet] Beneath the ground,'' the heartbroken father of four said, referring to survivors' accounts of the current hostage situation. According to a report by Express and Star. “And the most important question is, [the captors] touching them.
“We know that some of the girls – it's very difficult to say this – they sexually attacked them, and especially that they didn't let them go. We are worried,” Albag said.
Thinking about the trauma her children are experiencing, Albag said, “They wake up alive in the morning, but they go to sleep dead. Every day.”
The Israeli father spoke to the media on Monday after meeting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary David Cameron at a lunch hosted by the Conservative Friends of Israel in London.
he told BBC News When he asked a released female hostage if Hamas terrorists were sexually abusing Israeli women, she said she could not answer.
“She was silent, but her face moved, so I knew something had happened there,” he recalled. “The hostages saw something, but they didn't want to tell us.
“I understand that they don't want to talk about this and they don't want to hurt us. But we understand. We really understand,” Albag continued. .
“It's hard to say and hard to think, but I'm worried that they did something bad to these girls. I don't understand them, and neither do these animals. We can’t,” the father added, referring to Hamas.
The families of Al-Bagh and three other hostages will press the British leader in talks to “choose a side” and help free their loved ones from Qatar, which acts as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas. I begged him to call me.
Albag said he knows from former prisoners that his daughter was physically unharmed during the first 50 days of her captivity in Hamas captivity. She was appearing in a propaganda video at the time. However, there have been no sightings of her since then.
Albag described her daughter Lili as “the happiest person, she loved music, she loved dancing.”
Standing outside Parliament House, he displayed two enlarged photos of Lili. One photo was taken before the Hamas attack, and the other was taken by the prisoners after their abduction.
In a second image, the 18-year-old can be seen cowering in fear with mud caked on her face and hoodie.
“Look at her eyes, they say it all,” her father said. “It's this picture that I see every minute and second of every day. I have to take medication because it's always flashing in my head and I can't sleep.”
Albag told reporters that she looked Sunak in the eye, told her about her daughter and gave her a dog tag that read, “Take me home.”
Other families who attended Monday's meeting said the British prime minister was very supportive and told them “we will do everything we can” to ensure the freedom of their loved ones.
But Arbag also warned those negotiating for the release of the hostages that sexual violence against Israeli women would result in a large number of unwanted pregnancies, which would soon be too late to abort. warned that it could become.
“There's a time limit to stop it,” he said.
Eli Albag's wife, Sheila, reiterated her husband's dire warning Tuesday during a session of Israel's parliament, which was attended by families of former hostages and those still held captive. Haaretz reported.
“The Cabinet needs to wake up. [as does] The world is running out of time,” said Shira Albag. “They should have been home a long time ago.”
She added, “I try not to imagine pregnancy.”
Aviva Siegel, a former prisoner of war who attended Tuesday's meeting, said Hamas terrorists had turned Gaza's hostages into “puppets who could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted,” and she couldn't believe they were still there. , he said.
Siegel said he witnessed terrorists bringing female prisoners “inappropriate clothes, doll clothes.”
“It's almost 4 months. [since they were kidnapped]. We stayed there for 51 days and there wasn't a moment where we didn't experience abuse. And they are still there,” she said.
About 100 hostages were freed in November during a week-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Approximately 132 Israelis remain in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday “absolutely” rejected Hamas' offer to release all remaining hostages in exchange for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said of Netanyahu's refusal: “It means there is no chance of getting the prisoners back.”
