SHELLY TAL MERON ON THE RED CROSS – We expected the world, women's organizations, human rights organizations to talk about what Israeli women and the Israeli people in general experienced on October 7. There has been complete silence from these organisations, particularly from Un Women. We sent letters, we talked about it, but there was no response. We expected the world to condemn Hamas, a terrorist organization that uses sexual violence as a weapon of war. These are war crimes, against the Geneva Convention. We asked for the Red Cross to visit the hostages, to evaluate their medical conditions, to give them medicine, to give us a list and know who is alive and who is no longer alive, who is injured, and we have not been successful. Our Minister of Health flew to Europe to meet the president of the Red Cross but it didn't work out, our prime minister also met her. The Red Cross is not visiting our hostages, they are civilians who were taken to Gaza, it is a war crime. These people are not getting medical care, many have been injured, they need it, there are 85 year olds who need medicine every day and they are not getting it. We ask the Red Cross to do its job and this means taking care of the health of these people. We send hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid to Gaza to help the civilian population and we expect the Red Cross to take care of our hostages.
SHELLY TAL MERON VIDEO VIOLENCE OF WOMEN – I am a member of the Knesset Civil Rights Committee, unfortunately on October 7 we had a horrendous attack by Hamas. People were killed, some burned alive, and women also suffered sexual violence and mutilation. We saw it in the Kibbutz, young women raped and then killed, we saw it at the Nova Festival where many young women were raped and killed. We have testimonies of what happened and there are investigations into the matter by some of the main international media. 250 people were taken hostage in Gaza, some of them young women. There are women who have returned from captivity explaining what is happening and talking about sexual violence that is currently taking place in Gaza. There are still young women hostages in the Strip who suffer violence every day. We need to bring our hostages home now, starting with the women. These young girls could get pregnant. I believe the pain of giving birth to a child in those conditions is inexplicable and is something we cannot accept. We want to catch the terrorists and bring them before the Israeli and international court.
