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WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday met with an Israeli lawyer who has publicly described being sexually assaulted whereas held hostage in Gaza, and mentioned the story left her fearing extra such accounts “will solely improve as extra hostages are launched.”
Harris hosted an occasion highlighting efforts to cut back conflict-related sexual violence around the globe and mentioned she’d spoken with Amit Soussana, who was kidnapped from her dwelling when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Soussana detailed for The New York Times being sexually assaulted whereas held in Gaza, earlier than she was launched, together with a bunch of different hostages, throughout a November ceasefire that briefly suspended fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Harris mentioned that after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, “I noticed photos of bloody Israeli girls kidnapped.”
“Then it got here to mild that Hamas dedicated rape and gang rape on the Nova music pageant,” the vice chairman mentioned, referring to the Tribe of Nova music that was overrun by Hamas militants. “And girls’s our bodies had been discovered bare from the waist down, arms tied behind their again and shot within the head.”
Such accounts of atrocities will not be new, however Harris detailing accusations of sexual violence surrounding the Israel-Hamas struggle comes because the Biden administration is working to broker another ceasefire to pause the fighting in Gaza.
Harris on Monday urged Hamas to simply accept a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal. She additionally mentioned she heard tales from former Israeli hostages about what they “witnessed and heard in captivity,” and spoke with Soussana, who the vice chairman mentioned “has bravely come ahead together with her account of sexual violence whereas she was held captive by Hamas.”
“These testimonies, I concern, will solely improve as extra hostages are launched,” Harris mentioned. “We can’t look away. And we won’t be silent.”
Hamas has denied sexually assaulting folks in the course of the Oct. 7, 2024, assault, or the hostages it has held since, and false reports of abuse have typically helped fueled the battle between the militant group and Israel.
However a United Nations report launched in March discovered “affordable grounds” to consider Hamas committed rape, “sexualized torture,” and different merciless and inhumane remedy of girls throughout its Oct. 7, 2024, assault. The identical report discovered there are “affordable grounds to consider that such violence could also be ongoing.”
The vice chairman additionally mentioned her “coronary heart breaks for all these survivors and their households, and for all of the ache and struggling over the past eight months in Israel and in Gaza.”
Harris mentioned “sexual violence has been a tactic of struggle since historic occasions,” although she famous that the worldwide group has made latest progress recognizing it “as an assault on peace, stability and human rights.”
She mentioned that the Biden administration had labored to forestall such violence by doing issues like offering rape kits and heath take care of survivors and serving to to coach militaries and again worldwide peacekeepers. The U.S. has additionally imposed financial sanctions on people related to conflicts in locations like Iraq, Sudan and the Central African Republic.
“It isn’t sufficient. The crimes persist and, globally, our system of accountability stays insufficient,” Harris mentioned. “Extra should be performed.”
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