Israeli hostages impregnated as Hamas captives to take call on abortion: Report

Israeli hostages impregnated as Hamas captives to take call on abortion: Report

Israeli women held as hostages and got pregnant from being raped by their Hamas captors in Gaza will take a call on whether they want to keep their baby or terminate the pregnancy upon their release, reports said.

Reports have surfaced suggesting that scores of women, who are held captive by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, have stopped menstruating. Subsequently, the Israeli government began chalking out detailed plans to deal with the possibility of unwanted pregnancies in women who were kidnapped by Hamas fighters after its October 7 attack on Israel, reported Walla!, a local news outlet.

The Israeli Ministry of Welfare and Health is mulling ways to offer support for these women by bypassing the formalities and rules of the country. In Israel, abortion is taken up by a pregnancy termination committee typically, which further determines whether to grant an abortion request.

But at present, in light of claims about pregnancy attained under the clutches of Hamas men, Israeli authorities are considering surpassing these steps to reduce the bureaucracy and formalities involved in the cases of any pregnant former hostages.

As per data, there exist more than 130 Israeli hostages, including teenage girls and women, still under Hamas’s captivity.

This number was reached following the now-expired temporary truce and prisoners-hostages swap deal between Israel and Hamas ended in November.

The four-day pact was extended by negotiations by Qatari and Egyptian authorities with the terror group.

The Israeli civilian authorities, in association with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are mapping out a program that will coordinate all available resources for treating sexually abused hostages, which will include financial and psychological support to process their trauma inflicted by Hamas.

The discussions also came up in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, on Tuesday, wherein a former hostage, who was held by Hamas, revealed that some of the younger female hostages have stopped menstruating.

“There are girls who have not got 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,” the ex-hostage, 49, said. She added that main concerns still remain that these women would not be released for another few months, and it would be too late to end their pregnancies.

The concerns fuel the string of harrowing incidents and accounts shared by former hostages who hinted that sexual violence in Gaza, where hostages are believed to be kept, is rampant.

Meanwhile, Hamas has denied allegations of sexual abuse of Israeli captives by its gunmen.

ALSO READ | Israel-Hamas conflict has direct impact on India’s economic interests: UNSC told