Harris meets with former Israeli hostage who reported sexual abuse in Gaza

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met Monday with an Israeli lawyer who has publicly reported sexual assault while he was held hostage in Gaza. Harris said the story made her fear there will “only be more such reports as more hostages are released.”

Harris hosted an event highlighting efforts to reduce conflict-related sexual violence around the world and said she spoke with Amit Soussana, who was abducted from her home in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Soussana detailed to the New York Times how she was sexually abused while detained in Gaza before being released along with a group of other hostages during a ceasefire in November that briefly halted fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Harris said that after the October 7 Hamas attack, he “saw images of bloodied, kidnapped Israeli women.”

“Then it came to light that Hamas had committed rape and gang rape at the Nova music festival,” the vice president said, referring to the Tribe of Nova music festival overrun by Hamas militias. “And the bodies of women were found naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to the head.”

Such reports of atrocities are nothing new, but Harris’s portrayal of allegations of sexual violence in the war between Israel and Hamas comes as the Biden administration works to broker another ceasefire to halt fighting in Gaza.

Harris on Monday called on Hamas to accept a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal. She also said she had heard from former Israeli hostages what they “saw and heard in their captivity” and that she had spoken to Soussana, who the vice president said “courageously went public and published her account of sexual violence while she was held captive by Hamas.”

“I fear these testimonies will only increase as more hostages are released,” Harris said. “We cannot look away. And we will not be silent.”

Hamas denies sexually harassing hostages during the October 7, 2024, attack or since then, and false reports of abuse have helped fuel the conflict between the militant group and Israel.

But a United Nations report published in March found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Hamas committed rape, “sexual torture” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its attack on October 7, 2024. The same report found that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may continue.”

The Vice President also said her “heart breaks for all of these survivors and their families and for all of the pain and suffering of the past eight months in Israel and Gaza.”

Harris said “sexual violence has been a tactic of war since ancient times,” but noted that the international community has recently made progress in recognizing it as “an attack on peace, stability and human rights.”

She said the Biden administration has worked to prevent such violence, including by providing rape kits and medical care to survivors, helping train military personnel and supporting international peacekeepers. The U.S. has also imposed economic sanctions on individuals linked to conflicts in countries such as Iraq, Sudan and the Central African Republic.

“This is not enough. Crimes continue and our system of accountability around the world remains inadequate,” Harris said. “More must be done.”