A US State Department official has suggested that the reason the truce between Israel and Hamas fell apart was that the terrorists did not want released female prisoners revealing the sexual abuse they have faced in captivity.
Under the terms of the truce, which collapsed last Friday, Hamas was to prioritise the release of children and non-IDF females.
Israel says 15 women still held by Hamas meet that description, as well as two children — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 10 months, both of whom may now have perished.
“The fact that they continue to hold women hostages, the fact that they continue to hold children hostages, just the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over they’ve been holding hostage, and the reason this pause fell apart, is they don’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
