UN Testimony Reveals Barbaric Abuse of Israeli Hostages by Hamas

The world was confronted with unfiltered truth on Wednesday as former Israeli hostages Keith and Aviva Siegel gave searing testimony before the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) in Geneva, detailing the horrific abuse they endured while held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

“I am not asking for your mercy,” Keith Siegel told the committee. “I am asking you to ensure that the atrocities carried out by these terrorists against me and others in captivity never happen again.”

His words painted a chilling picture. For 50 days, Keith was held alongside his wife Aviva, before she was released. The following months were spent in tormenting solitude. “In total, I spent about six months entirely alone, at age 66, cut off from the world, terrified,” he said. Guards mocked him, starved him, denied water, and forced him to strip in acts of deliberate humiliation. “Every basic human right was stripped from me,” he said.

The emotional cost was just as devastating. Upon his release, Keith learned that his elderly mother had passed away two months earlier she never knew her son had survived.

Aviva Siegel’s testimony added further horror to the account. She recalled the abduction of a bleeding child from her community, bound and injured by Hamas terrorists. “He was covered in blood, we were covered in blood,” she said. “The terrorist smiled as he cut the child’s hand while removing his cuffs.”

Aviva, who lost 10 kilograms during her captivity, recounted the starvation and deprivation she and others endured. “We wasted away while the terrorists ate before us and gave us nothing,” she testified. Even more disturbing were her accounts of abuse against female captives. One young woman emerged from a shower trembling after being violated by a terrorist. A 16-year-old girl, forced to shower in front of a leering captor, was left traumatized.

The testimonies offered an undeniable moral reckoning. Speaking after the Siegels, Justice Ministry Director-General Itamar Donenfeld told the committee, “The testimonies we heard today are not just personal stories. They are a moral and legal indictment of the world’s silence.”

Donenfeld reaffirmed Israel’s full commitment to the UN Convention Against Torture but called out the hypocrisy of international institutions that ignore the suffering inflicted by terror groups like Hamas. “The international community’s silence in the face of torture, abductions, and abuse undermines the very spirit of the convention. It must serve as a moral compass compelling action.”

The harrowing testimonies are not just reminders of past atrocities they are urgent warnings. They expose the inhumanity of Hamas, whose methods belong not in political discourse but in the annals of evil. And they reinforce Israel’s just cause: to defend its people and ensure that such horrors are never repeated.

Never forget what Hamas did. Share this article and subscribe to our newsletter for more on the fight to expose truth and defend Israel’s right to exist in peace.