Doctor who treated freed Hamas hostages describes physical, sexual and psychological abuse
CBSN
About 100 Israeli hostages, kidnapped during the deadly Hamas raid on Israel, have been released after more than 50 days in captivity. Dr. Itai Pessach (director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children's Hospital at Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv), whose team interviewed and examined many of them, told "CBS News Sunday Morning" the freed hostages were brought to the medical center whether they wanted to come or not.
"We thought they would need a buffer from that time in captivity, underground, in the dark, with very little food, with a lot of psychological stress," he said. "We have to remember that these people have not been around since October 7."
For some, they did not have a home to go back to – and it was Pessach who had to inform them. "One of the largest challenges that we had is, how do we break the bad news?" he said. "They look around the room, and they see that someone's missing. That was something we had to prepare for."
