Released hostage Amit Soussana, kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, talks to the press in front of her destroyed home at the Kibbutz Kfar Aza, Israel, Jan. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini

An Israeli woman who was held hostage by Hamas recently revealed that she was sexually assaulted by her captor. And she is not the only one. Other hostages have also testified about sexual abuse, torture, and beatings while being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

As more testimonies from Israeli hostages who were freed last November are being published, the war of narratives has become urgent.

The Palestinian and Arab narrative is entirely fictitious and is intended to humanize Hamas and deny its atrocities. One example is this outrageous claim made to official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV by a lecturer at Cairo University — that the Israeli hostages received “generous treatment” and left captivity “happy and laughing”:

Head of Radio and TV Department at Cairo University’s Faculty of Mass Communications Ashraf Jalal: “The generous treatment Palestine gave the Israeli prisoners [i.e., kidnapped women and children] caused an enormous positive response, because after [the Israelis] lied and said that [Hamas] is abusing them, the [Israeli] people left [Gaza] happy and laughing … What is required is that we redirect the media spotlight to this issue.”

[Official PA TV, From Cairo, Feb. 12, 2024]

This brazen lie follows those made by senior PA officials, which have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch.

In November 2023, Minister Qadura Fares, who is the director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, said that Israel “made up this story … [that the Palestinians] raped, killed, and burned” [Official PA TV, Nov. 20, 2023]. In December 2023, PLO Executive Committee member and PLF Secretary-General Wasel Abu Yusuf said: “Since October 7, there has been a Zionist version that [Israel] has attempted to spread worldwide out of tendentious propaganda, [claiming] that there was murder of children, rape of women, crimes, and the like” [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 3, 2023].

Freed Israeli hostages have reported that they were sexually abused, tortured, beaten, and starved. The question is: why is it so important for the PA, Hamas, and their supporters to deny the sexual abuse? Certainly, kidnapping and holding civilians as hostages is by itself a horrific crime, but these they are not denying.

According to the values of the world’s antisemites and Israel haters, however, if Hamas had “only” kidnapped and not sexually abused civilians, the events of October 7 would easily have been hailed as a successful “resistance operation.”

It is only the sexual abuse, which in 2024 in some circles is a crime worse than murder, that makes it difficult for them to publicly support the kidnappings. By denying the sexual abuse and claiming the hostages left their prison “happy and laughing,” the antisemites around the world can celebrate Hamas’ atrocities without being looked down upon by many of their contemporaries and colleagues who welcome the murder and kidnapping of Israelis as legitimate, but have trouble accepting the rape of women.

Itamar Marcus is Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.