Explaining how freed hostage Liri Albag saved her life when they were both in Hamas captivity was just one of the revelations that released hostage Amit Soussana provided in an exclusive, first-time interview aired on Tuesday on Uvda, N12’s investigative program.
Soussana, a 40-year-old lawyer from Kfar Aza who was taken captive on October 7, has been a prominent campaigner for the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza and was the first freed hostage to give public testimony of the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
October 7
Soussana was released in the first hostage-prisoner exchange in November 2023. In the N12 interview, she recounted how she was taken captive and detailed what she underwent during her 55 days in Hamas captivity.
Amit Soussana speaks on Uvda. January 28, 2025. (Credit: Keshet).
The infamous footage of Soussana’s kidnapping shows her battling ten armed men for over 40 minutes, alone, in what she called “the fight of my life.”
Soussana said that she was trying to buy as much time as she could to allow the army to rescue her.
Recently released hostage Amit Soussana’s remarkable courage shines in a new video on N12. The footage vividly captures her brave stand against seven terrorists, as she adamantly refuses to be taken hostage. Read more: https://t.co/JjmY2ohHHZ pic.twitter.com/wVdimQETbj
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) December 5, 2023
“I just stumbled; I walked as slowly as I could,” she told N12. “At first, the terrorists probably believed me. But then I started gesturing with my hands and feet and going wild to make it clear that I was still alive.”
She did this in the hopes that someone would come to her rescue.
However, despite making things more difficult for her captors, Soussana suffered blows and beatings in return. One terrorist even hit her with the barrel of his gun. Her captors then tied her up with a blanket she managed to grab when she was dragged out of her home.
“They bust my lip open, broke my nose and my eye socket. I didn’t feel any pain; I don’t remember pain. I just remember thinking, ‘They’re going to kill me, so at least I know I didn’t go down without a fight,’” she told N12.
“I gave it everything I had because I thought I was going to die and in the most horrible way possible,” she continued.
In captivity
At the start of her captivity in Gaza, Soussana was held alone. Her captor tied her up with a thick metal chain, secured with a padlock.
“I was afraid of him,” she told N12 of the terrorist who was keeping her hostage. “There were many signs that it was heading towards an assault – obsessive preoccupation with my period, many sexual innuendos…”
“He would sit in bed next to me or in front of me wearing only his underwear, caressing me all the time under the pretext of concern,” she said of the attacker.
“He would lift my shirt to ‘see my scars.’ Sometimes he would talk about things that made me feel uncomfortable; I would move my head – but you still have to be nice to him,” she elaborated.
Soussana said the only thing that kept her sane was the small bit of sunlight that filtered into the room she was being held in.
“There’s darkness in Gaza,” she said. “You open your eyes and think they are still closed. I kept looking at his gun. I imagined shooting him and running away. I’m also tied up all the time, so if I need to go to the bathroom I have to ask him.”
“The thing that broke me was that he made it completely dark for me,” Soussana said.
Soon after she was violently sexually assaulted at gunpoint, when the terrorist guarding her offered her a hot shower.“Even though I prepared myself [for the assault] it surprised me,” she said.
“This ‘idiot’ terrorist with such a ‘goofy’ face suddenly looked like a monster. He brought me a hand towel. I just took it and covered myself. He pulled me into the bedroom, I sat down by the door and locked myself in. He kept punching me and threatening me with the gun. It was a serious sexual assault at gunpoint.”
‘Liri is something special’
Three weeks after she was first taken hostage, during which she was held alone, Soussana was transferred to a new location where she met other hostages, including IDF observer Liri Albag, who was released last weekend.
The violence and suffering Soussana endured was much worse in this house, she told N12, because the guards thought she was a soldier.
“Suddenly, they brought two sticks in, handcuffed me by my hands and feet, and hung me upside down with masking tape on my mouth like a grilled chicken.”
The terrorists then proceeded to hit her on the soles of her feet with a wooden stick while another threatened to drive a spike into her eye.
N12 said regarding this part of the account that Soussana’s information provided insight as to how soldiers are likely being treated in captivity.
According to Soussana, the terrorists said to her: “You have 40 minutes to tell the truth, or we will kill you.”
At this point, Albag pulled their captors aside and successfully convinced them that Soussana was not a soldier, much less a senior official, as they had believed.
The abductors backed down.
“Liri is something special,” Soussana said. “She is a force to be reckoned with. I told her when she came back: ‘I don’t know if they would have killed me or not, but as far as I’m concerned, you saved my life.’”
Sexual assault in captivity
Soussana has been outspoken about the violence and sexual assault she suffered in Gaza.
In March 2024, she had an eight-hour interview with The New York Times in which she detailed the rape she endured during captivity.
This made Soussana the first released hostage to provide a firsthand account of the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas.
The first sexual assault occurred around October 24, when her captor, Muhammad, forced her to commit a sex act on him, Soussana told the publication.
“Then, with the gun pointed at me, [he] forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” Soussana said. After it was over, Muhammad left the room to wash up and left Soussana naked in the dark.
In November 2024, she spoke to the UN Security Council, providing details of her assault. She said there that her experiences were an added incentive to fight for the release of the remaining hostages from Gaza.
“We, the hostages, made a vow to each other: If one of us were ever freed, we would never stop fighting for the release of the others. Today, I am fulfilling that promise by sharing my story, no matter how painful it is. Staying silent would be even harder.”
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