Several hostage family members were at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday to be presented with a UN report that recognized hostage families as victims of Hamas’s psychological terrorism.
“Unfortunately, even after 515 days, neither me nor my daughters are capable of unpacking what happened on [October 7],” Lishai Miran Lavi, the wife of hostage Omri Miran, said. “We are still there, we are still hostages because Omri has not been returned back to us.”
Miran Lavi said that when she wakes up in the morning, her daughters ask her the same three questions.“Why is Dad still in Gaza? When will he return? Mom, did you succeed in bringing him back?” she said. “Their abandonment fears are felt every minute of every day.”
The report, by Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, was the result of intensive efforts of the Hostage and Missing Families Forum’s legal department, headed by Dr. Shelly Aviv Yeni, KAN said.
The forum reached out to Edwards, who traveled to Israel in December 2024 at the behest of Aviv Yeni. Edwards met with around 20 hostage families and survivors of captivity and toured the Gaza border communities.
In the report, titled “Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: hostage-taking as torture,” Edwards writes that both hostages and their families are “greatly impacted.”
“The physical and mental pain or suffering they experience meets the threshold of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
In Point 74 of the report, Edwards writes, “Hamas has released videos of hostages that torment family members by, for example, asking them to guess which hostage has been killed.”
She included additional examples of psychological torture, such as not receiving official proof of life, not being able to send messages of contact, and not being given any indication of the hostages’ welfare or condition.
Additionally, “bodies of the dead are also used as leverage, preventing families from burying their loved ones.”
She added that “the concealment, destruction or violation of the bodies of victims may infringe on the rights of family members to be free from torture and ill-treatment.”
Potential for seeking damages
The forum said this definition will “allow families to file claims in international tribunals against Hamas for damages and seek financial compensation for their suffering.”
Rivka Bohbot, the wife of hostage Elkana Bohbot, said the report must be a wake-up call to the world.
“Today, more than before, based on testimonies from freed hostages and from Edwards’s report, we know that the hostages are being viciously tortured,” she said. “Every person with a conscience, anyone who believes in justice and humanity, must ask themselves: How are we, as a global society, continuing to allow this to happen?”
At the event in Geneva, the hostage family members also met with Volker Türk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights.
Aviv Yeini told KAN that the report states that Hamas’s release of manipulated hostage videos designed to mislead families constitutes torture.
The rapporteur also advised the government to provide the families with more regular updates and support, given that many families experience chronic anxiety and depression, “often exacerbated by demands by their governments not to speak publicly.”
Many feel “a sense of being abandoned by their government, sometimes manipulated by the hostage-takers as a form of psychological torture, adds to the powerlessness of hostages.”
The forum reportedly added that the next step is to push for a UN Security Council resolution acknowledging their status.
Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, founder of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, said that Hamas not only carried out unimaginable torture against women, children, and families but also exploited social media to amplify their suffering, using it as a tool of psychological terror.
“October 7 wasn’t just an attack on Israel – it was a blueprint,” she said. “Radical groups and terrorists worldwide see Hamas’s abuse, torture, and hostage-taking as a new standard for terror, inspiring copycat attacks globally... By identifying and naming this atrocity, we aim to bring this hidden cruelty to the forefront of international law and human rights discourse.”