Former Hamas hostage Amit Soussana is sharing more details about her time in captivity, and she says there was another hostage who was instrumental in her survival. Liri Albag, one of the IDF soldiers who was kidnapped on Oct. 7, ‘saved’ Soussana.
Speaking on Israeli TV, Soussana recalled her captors tying her up and beating her, demanding that she admit to being in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Soussana says her hands and feet were bound, and she was beaten with a stick before one of the captors pointed a gun at her and said, ‘You have 40 minutes to tell us the truth, or else I kill you.’
Fellow hostage Albag was apparently able to convince their captors that Soussana was not in fact in the military. Soussana who calls Albag ‘something special, a force,’ believes this act saved her life.
‘I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not; as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life,’ Soussana said in the interview.
Hamas terrorists kidnapped Soussana from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the brutal Oct. 7 attacks. She was forced to walk barefoot in pajamas from her burning house to the Gaza border, being beaten along the way. Soussana fought her kidnappers in what was called ‘the battle of my life,’ trying to stall them in hopes that the IDF would rescue her before she was dragged into Gaza.
Soussana was released from Gaza in November 2023 after 55 days in captivity as part of Israel’s first hostage deal with Hamas.
In March 2024, Soussana became the first Israeli woman to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted while in Hamas captivity. She recalled the horrifying incident in an interview with The New York Times. Soussana later testified before the UN Security Council in October 2024 about her experience.
During her captivity, Soussana was chained by her ankle, unable to move. ‘I had to ask for permission to use the bathroom,’ she explained, detailing her experience. ‘In that house, I was sexually assaulted by the Hamas terrorist who had guarded me.’
She described the assault, saying, ‘He forced me to go to the shower and entered the room, pointed his gun at me. He was breathing heavily and had a monstrous beast-like face.’ She recalled his intrusive questioning while he sat next to her in his underwear, lifting her shirt and touching her. ‘I knew exactly what he was planning to do, and yet I couldn’t do anything to prevent it. I was utterly helpless.’
Soussana said that after the assault she was not ‘allowed to cry or to be sad.’ She recalled feeling isolated and being ‘forced to act nice to the person who had just sexually assaulted me.’
Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a deadly war for over 15 months following the terror group’s devastating surprise attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas is expected to release Agam Berger, Arbel Yehoud and 80-year-old Gadi Moses on Jan. 30 as part of the current ceasefire deal with Israel.