Tel Aviv [Israel], December 6 (ANI): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came down heavily on international human rights organisations, women’s groups and the UN for failing to speak out about the rapes and other atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli women. Taking to his official X handle, the Israeli PM posted, “I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations: You’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation – where the hell are you?”

“I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations, to speak up against this atrocity,” he added. He made the remarks at a press conference in Tel Aviv alongside Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Minister Benny Gantz. Netanyahu said he met the released hostages and the relatives of those still held hostage earlier, a meeting described as hostile and stormy by those present, The Times of Israel reported.

“I heard heartbreaking stories of abuse,” he said, adding, “I heard, as you have heard, about sexual abuse and unprecedented cases of cruel rape.” But, he said, he did not hear women’s groups and human rights groups “scream” about this. “Were you silent because it was Jewish women?” Netanyahu asked, according to The Times of Israel.

On Israel allowing additional humanitarian aid and fuel into Gaza, and if it reduces the country’s leverage over Hamas with regard to the safe-keeping and the release of hostages, Netanyahu said “the main card” Israel has to return the hostages is the war effort and the ground operation, and the humanitarian aid supports that.

“There is no contradiction” between the war effort and the accompanying humanitarian aid, as it all combines to help regarding the hostages, he said.

Further, according to The Times of Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said he told the IDF and the coordinator of activities in the territories to close off “the electricity, the water and the fuel [that Israel supplies to Gaza], and halt the entrance of workers” on October 7.

He was moving, he said, toward severing all Israeli government responsibility for Gaza. When the ground operation began, Gallant said he knew that the pressure was the path to bring home the hostages.

The ground operation requires and enables humanitarian aid, he said, adding “minimal humanitarian aid to enable the military pressure”. On letting fuel into Gaza, Gallant says that, in return, Israel has the “right to demand” that Hamas honour its obligation to allow the Red Cross to visit the hostages or, at least, provide medicines and take care of other requirements, The Times of Israel reported. (ANI)

Hamas drugged hostages before releasing them, Knesset told

Tel Aviv [Israel], December 5 (ANI/TPS): Hamas drugged Israeli hostages before freeing them, “to make them look happy,” a Health Ministry official told a Knesset panel on Tuesday. Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Health Ministry’s medical division, testified to the Knesset Health Committee that the captives were given a tranquilizer which she identified as Clonazepam sometime before they were handed over to Red Cross custody.

Clonazepam is commonly used to treat certain types of seizure and panic disorders. Normally administered orally, the drug has a calming effect on the nervous system. Side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, impaired coordination, and fatigue. In some places, it is sold by the name Klonopin or Rivotril.

Long-term use or misuse of the medication can lead to dependency, tolerance, and withdrawal symptoms. Mizrahi did not indicate whether this was based on blood tests, testimonies of the hostages or both. Committee chairman MK Yoni Meshariki called on the ministry to send an official report with detailed findings and evidence to other health organisations around the world.

Eighty-one Israelis along with 23 Thais and one Filipino were freed in a prisoner exchange during a temporary ceasefire. Hamas currently holds 137 men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners captive in Gaza. At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas‘s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Some people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains. (ANI/TPS)