A U.S. official said Monday that Hamas is likely holding back from releasing more civilian women the group kidnapped from Israel to prevent testimonies of sexual violence against them.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller made the remarks during a briefing with the press, reiterating the administration’s view that Hamas is responsible for ending a lull in fighting with Israel on Friday by refusing to release women and children to release those the group is holding hostage.
“The fact that it seems to be one of the reasons why they don’t want to extradite women that they’ve been holding hostages and the reason why this break failed is because they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what’s going on happened to them while they were in prison,” Miller said, referring to sexual violence against women.
“Certainly there is very little that I would beat Hamas to do when it comes to the treatment of civilians and particularly the treatment of women.”
Israeli officials are investigating and gathering evidence that Hamas committed sexual violence as a weapon of war – including rape and other serious atrocities – particularly against Israeli women, as part of Hamas’s large-scale attack on Israel on October 7.
Miller said the Biden administration had no reason to doubt reports of sexual violence against women and others by Hamas, but had not made an independent assessment.
Miller’s statements represent a slight departure from other US officials who have commented on the failure of a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel and intensive negotiations with the US, Egypt and Qatar.
During a seven-day lull in fighting, Hamas released more than 100 people the group had kidnapped from Israel – including women, children, some young men and foreigners such as South Asian nationals working in Israel.
However, according to US and Israeli officials, the ceasefire expired on Friday after Hamas failed to provide a list of additional women and children for release. The U.S. and Israel say they are continuing to work to secure the release of more hostages – about 120 people – including women but also civilian men – some elderly – and Israeli soldiers, both men and women.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to speculate on why Hamas is refusing to release civilian women.
“They haven’t done it and are just saying we’re very worried about it. But I won’t speculate on their reasoning.”
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