Amit Soussana | |
|---|---|
 Soussana in April 2025 | |
| Born | 9 September 1983 |
Amit Soussana (born September 9, 1983) is an Israeli lawyer and released hostage. She was abducted during the October 7 attacks in the Kfar Aza Massacre. She was the first Israeli hostage to come forward about being sexually assaulted in captivity. [1]
Amit Soussana was born on September 9, 1983. [2] She was raised in Sderot and had two older sisters, Shira and Liat. [1] [3] She obtained an LLB from Sapir College. [4] She has been a licensed member of the Israeli Bar Association since 2014. [5] She was employed by Luzzatto & Luzzatto, Attorneys and Patent Attorneys from 2015 to 2024. [5] She lived by herself in a one-story house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. [1]
On October 7, 2023, Soussana was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. [1] Footage of her abduction showed her trying to resist against a group of her abductors. [6] She was injured during her abduction, and upon her release was found to have several facial fractures along with bruising on her knee and back. [1] During her captivity, she was held in around six locations, including homes, offices, and a tunnel 40 meters below the ground. [7] [1] She was originally held alone in a home near the Gaza border, where she was kept chained by the ankle. [1] Around the start of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Soussana was moved a different home in Nuseirat, where she was held with four other hostages. [1] In that location, she was bound and beaten during an interrogation by her captors, until fellow hostage Liri Albag convinced their captors that Soussanna was not in the IDF. [8] In mid-November, Soussana and six other hostages were moved to a tunnel. [1] Later, the three hostages were moved to another home. [1] She was freed on November 30, 2023, during the prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, after spending 55 days in captivity. [1]
In an interview with The New York Times, Soussana described being forced to commit a sexual act on her captor while being held at gunpoint. [1] Early on in her captivity, Soussana was held in a child's bedroom and occassionally the guard would "the guard would enter, sit beside her on the bed, lift her shirt and touch her." [1] Around October 24, 2023, Soussana was sexually assaulted by a guard using the alias of 'Muhammad'. During the interview, Soussana said that 'Muhammad' pointed his gun on her, groped her, and eventually forced Soussana "to commit a sexual act on him”. [1]
The day after her release, Soussana recounted her sexual assault to a doctor from Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine. [1]
In January 2024, Soussana met with Pramila Patten, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. [7] In a March 2024 interview with the New York Times, Soussana became the first released Israeli hostage speak publicly about being sexually assaulted in captivity. [1] Since then, Soussana has testified about her sexual assault in many public instances. She was interviewed in the documentary Screams Before Silence by Sheryl Sandberg. [9] On June 17, 2024, Soussana met with U.S. vice president Kamala Harris at the White House at a screening of Screams Before Silence. [10] On October 23, 2024, Soussana testified about her sexual assault in front of the United Nations Security Council. [7] Soussana was a member of the advisory board for The Dinah Project. [11] In March 2025, Soussana was presented with the International Women of Courage Award by the United States Department of State due to her advocacy. [12]