Gaza: One Hostage's Story

This article first appeared in New English Review.

Amit Soussana, a 40-year-old Israeli woman who was taken hostage on October 7 by Hamas and later released in a prisoner swap, has come forward to tell her story. It is beyond disturbing and should serve as a lesson for all the people in the West who are demonstrating on behalf of the Palestinians-in effect, Hamas. It is a tale of beating, torture, and sexual abuse, not just by the terrorists of Hamas who kidnapped her and took her to Gaza, but apparently by “civilian” men who kept her prisoner in their homes and abused her. Her story, which appears in the Times of Israel (as well as many other major news sources), can be read here. (Reader warning.)

Putting aside the obvious barbarity of Hamas on October 7 (and beyond), according to many reports, it appears that not all the hostages have been kept in the subterranean tunnels where Hamas terrorists are hiding. Many have reportedly been turned over to people in their homes for guarding.  On October 7, videos from the terrorists themselves showed howling mobs of civilians celebrating the arrival of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. There is the infamous video of a young German woman, kidnapped from the music festival she was attending, lying motionless, half naked in the bed of a pickup truck, and Palestinian civilians spitting on her body and striking her. Gaza was cheering on October 7, just as they were cheering on 9-11. Make no mistake: Hamas enjoys the vast support of the civilian population in Gaza (and the West Bank as well). Today, it is those same civilians in Gaza that the world is expressing so much concern for. Of course, nobody should celebrate the death of innocents. There are surely women and children in Gaza who have died during the Israeli invasion who are not guilty of anything, and that is regrettable. Their blood, however, is on the hands of Hamas, who cowardly uses civilians as shields and refuses to surrender even as the Gaza Strip has been decimated. I am not afraid to state that any sympathy I might hold for the citizens of Gaza is tempered by the horrors that most of them celebrated.

Yet, here in the US, Canada, and Europe, thousands take to the streets to condemn Israel. Many are of Middle East descent, many are not, just gullible “woke” activists jumping on the anti-Israel, anti-West bandwagon. What occurred on October 7 has not changed their point of view one iota. The beheading and burning alive of innocent civilians-including infants(!) has not changed their minds. The fact that Americans are among the hostages matters nothing to them. The ongoing plight of the hostages, people like Ms. Soussana, has not changed their point of view one iota. I have no doubt that her tale will not change the opinion of the pro-Palestinian mobs one iota. Nor will any of this change the opinions of the leftist university professors, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and all the other “woke” mobs that infest our university campuses from the East Coast to the West Coast, from Columbia to UC Berkeley and points in between. The warped professors will continue to hold their teach-ins, condemning Israel for fighting back, demanding a cease-fire, and devoting all of their compassion to the civilians of Gaza, including those who cheered October 7, including those who joined in the abuse of the hostages on that day, including those that are helping keep hostages under guard, and including those who have so horribly abused people like Amit Soussana.