News
By Snejana Farberov
Published
Jan. 24, 2024, 3:54 p.m. ET
After being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, any Israeli hostages who have become pregnant from rape will have to decide whether to keep the baby or terminate the pregnancy upon their release, according to a new report.
Israel’s Ministries of Welfare and Health are making detailed plans to address the possibility of unwanted pregnancies in women who were kidnapped by terrorists following the deadly Oct. 7 attacks, as reported by Walla!.
In Israel, a pregnancy termination committee usually decides whether to approve an abortion request — but officials are considering bypassing that process to streamline the cases of any former captives who are pregnant.
More than 130 Israelis are still in the hands of Hamas after nearly four months, including young women and teenage girls, with indications suggesting that some have been victims of sexual abuse, both during the initial attacks — as seen in disturbing videos online — and during captivity.
Civilian authorities, along with the Israel Defense Forces, are developing a program to coordinate all available resources for treating sexually abused hostages — including women at different stages of pregnancy — who will receive medical and psychological assistance.
Officials in Israel are preparing for the potential of female Hamas hostages being found pregnant as a result of rape. X/Daniel Brenner
Pregnant captives will have the choice to decide on having an abortion or continuing with the pregnancy. AFP via Getty Images
The Wolfson hospital in Holon city has already made arrangements and established protocols to receive freed captives.
In the initial stage, medical personnel will assess each patient for injuries and, if pregnant, evaluate the development of the fetus.
In the subsequent stage, former Hamas hostages will be offered support in dealing with their trauma.
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At that point, they will have to decide whether to terminate their pregnancy, if it is still viable in a manner that ensures the safety of the mother, or proceed with the pregnancy.
Women who choose to continue with their pregnancies will receive financial, legal, and mental health support from the government, according to the report.
French Jewish women protest at a Paris feminist march to condemn the silence of French women’s groups on the female victims of Hamas in the Oct. 7 terror attack. Maya Vidon-White/UPI/Shutterstock
During a discussion in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Tuesday, Chen Almog-Goldstein, 49, who was released from captivity after more than 50 days in Gaza, disclosed that some of the younger female captives have stopped menstruating.
“There are girls who have not gotten their period in a long time. Perhaps we all have to pray that their bodies protect them and they won’t get pregnant from rape,” she said.
In urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and foreign leaders to act quickly to free the remaining hostages, relatives of female captives emphasized that the longer their loved ones remain in captivity, the higher the risk of them becoming pregnant.
The main concern is that if the women are not released for another few months, it will be too late to terminate their pregnancies.
“I am uncertain how they will cope, but we must prepare now for this terrible theoretical possibility of a woman conceiving or raising such a child. Thus, we must stop this atrocity, not allow the captives to perish there, bring them back, and provide them with care,” Professor Tal Biron-Shental, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, recently told the Israel publication Maariv.
Disturbing accounts shared by former captives are fuelling fears that sexual violence in the Gaza tunnels, where the Israelis are believed to be kept, is widespread.
Ex-captive Aviva Siegel recently informed Israeli lawmakers that she witnessed members of the terror group providing female captives with “inappropriate clothing, dolls clothes.”
Former hostages explained that women held by Hamas are given “dolls clothes” and treated like “puppets.” AP
The female captives have been turned into “puppets with whom they could do what they wanted, when they wanted, and it’s beyond belief that they’re still there,’’ Siegel said.
Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old Liri Albag, who was taken from her bed by Hamas attackers on Oct. 7 and has not been seen or heard from in over 50 days, informed reporters in London this week that when he asked a freed captive if women were being raped, she avoided his gaze.
“She was silent but she moved her face so I understood that something happened there,” he recalled. “The hostage saw something, but she didn’t want to tell us.”
“We know that some of the girls — it’s very difficult to say this — [the terrorists] attacked them, sexually, and we are worried,” the heartbroken dad added.
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