Former hostage Mia Regev says 'every woman' sexually harassed in Hamas captivity
'To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear, but the men there also undergo abuse' says Sharon Aloni-Cunio, a mother who was abducted along with her family during the Hamas October 7 attack
An emergency session of the Israeli Parliament's Committee for the Advancement of Women took place Tuesday, with the participation of families of hostages abducted during the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
During the discussion, the horrors experienced by women held hostage by Hamas in Gaza were brought forward by survivors who were released.
Returned hostage Mia Regev testified during the session, "From my perspective, every discussion from October 7 needs to be a emergency debate because every day is a day of emergency. Every minute is important."
"To hear and see that the Knesset lawmakers go on break - so what will the women do there? What will the women, children, men, and soldiers do there? Will they wait for the Knesset members and the government to return to their comfortable seats and decide what to do? I personally did not believe it when I saw it," she criticized the parliamentary recess which takes places from April 7 until May 19.
"Every woman there, and as hard as it is to say - every woman experiences some form of sexual harassment. It doesn't matter how you try to beautify or change it. I was abandoned once. I'm sitting there waiting and saying 'Okay, in a few more days they will come to rescue me?' Is it logical that so many women are taken captive? Where have you heard such a thing? And I didn't believe it would take another day and another day and another day. I came back after 50 days, and I am coping with things [that happened] - I don't want to describe someone who was there for 179 days," Regev stated.
"I was fortunate and came back home. But what about them? They need you to go to sleep with them at night and wake up with them in the morning because they are sitting there waiting. They are waiting for someone to come and rescue them. They rely on you, on the government, and on the state that has already disappointed them once," she concluded.
Sharon Aloni-Cunio, who was abducted during the Hamas-led October 7 attack and returned, "As a woman who was there - I can say that the fear is endless, it can't be described in words. To be a woman in captivity is to be in constant fear, but the men there also undergo abuse. The feeling of helplessness is one I wouldn't wish on anyone. Every minute feels eternal and every movement of the terrorists causes a contraction in the stomach because who knows what may happen".