I was sexually assaulted & kept in chains by Hamas for 55 days – I was terrified they’d kill me… the torture was hell
A SURVIVOR of a brutal kidnapping by Hamas has revealed she was kept in chains, tortured, and sexually assaulted across 55 days.
Amit Soussana, 40, was taken hostage during the October 7 bloodbath and chained up for three weeks in a Gaza home.
The brave survivor has revealed in The Times how she battled through weeks of terror where she feared she would die.
After her capture, she was taken to a house where she was guarded by two men and tied up by an iron chain to bars on a window for three weeks.
The Israeli lawyer says she was sexually abused “under the threat of a gun” by one of her captors after she took a shower.
She writes: “He stood there with the gun. The guy who used to smile and laugh now looked like a monster, breathing heavily with a menacing look that was meant to scare me, possessed.
“I got up, took the small towel and covered myself. He came over with the gun to my head, trying to tear the towel away, but I wouldn’t let him.
“He punched me and I still wouldn’t let him.”
Amit then described how the guard, Mohammad, took her into a children’s room in the house where he forced her to perform a sexual act.
Her captors then continued to humiliate her for days on end, forcing Amit to get dressed fast and also clean for their amusement.
In one documentary, Screams Before Silence, Amit has previously revealed how she was terrified she would paraded through the streets when she was captured.
Amit said: “There were ten men around me.
“The feeling that they’re taking me like I’m some kind of object, I couldn’t stand it. My instinct was just to fight, and to do what I can.
“I was really scared that they were going to rape me there, and that they were going to drag me through Gaza streets and parade my body around.
“I feared that more than being killed.”
But, in November, less than two months after she had been kidnapped, Amit was released by the terrorists during a ceasefire.
She said she was given an hour by one guard to prepare for going back to Israel.
Hamas spokesman Basem Naim has denied any such allegations of sexual assault taking place towards prisoners.
In a statement to the New York Times, he said it was “difficult to believe” Amit’s account of sexual abuse, adding that “for us, the human body, and especially that of the woman, is sacred”.
The terrorist group has repeatedly denied that its members committed acts of sexual abuse towards prisoners or victims during the October 7 attacks.
But a United Nations (UN) report released earlier month stated there is “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had suffered sexual violence.
The report adds that there are “reasonable grounds” that some people were sexually assaulted during the raid.
Who are Hamas?
HAMAS is an Islamist militant group founded in 1987 during the first Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israel.
The terror organisation is a Palestinian militant movement that also serves as one of the territories’ two major political parties.
Over the years, Hamas has carried out shooting, bombing, and rocket attacks in Israel and the two region’s armies have fought in Gaza in multiple cross-border since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007.
But the group drew worldwide attention when they commited a set of horror attacks on October 7, 2023.
They launched surprise land, air, and sea attacks on Israel, killing over hundreds of Israelis and leaving thousands more injured.
Since then the brutal warfare has continued and thousands have died on both sides of the fighting.
Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US, the EU, and the UK, as well as other powers.