Israel's First Lady in Time Magazine: 'Hamas is weaponizing women's bodies'

Time Magazine published a piece by Israel's First Lady Michal Herzog on Friday that called for the release of the hostages held in Hamas captivity and emphasized the women currently held hostage—writing about how Hamas is using these women for the weaponization of their bodies, along with sexual assault and rape. 

The piece was written to mark the nine-month mark since Hamas took the hostages during the October 7 attacks and was titled "We cannot give up on the women abducted from Israel."

Herzog, an advocate for women's rights, provided background of the kidnappings that occurred, calling the brutality of the attack "medieval."

Describing the footage, Herzog wrote that in it, "18 and 19-year-old girls are bound hand and foot and faced against the wall, passive objects in the hands of their captors. 'You are so beautiful, leers one at a young woman, as he binds her hands, kneeling.'"

Herzog then called on the world to understand that the violence and crimes against women held hostage in Gaza reflect Hamas's "weaponizing of women's bodies."

"We need to face the facts. This weaponizing of women’s bodies, this weaponizing of sexual assault and rape in warfare since Oct. 7, has taken the entire human race many steps backward," Herzog explained.

Herzog then wrote that she demanded to know where the public outcry for these women was and asked, "Where is the voice—broken and piercing and fierce—on behalf of these women? On behalf of civilization?"

The world must speak up for these women

"What has happened to our humanity? Our capacity for empathy for the hostages as well as the innocent women and girls of Gaza? Our ethical intuition? Our sense of allegiance and responsibility to these women hostages?," she continued. 

Herzog added a personal note that, being both a woman and a mother, she knows the "primal vulnerability" that comes with these roles but also knows the power that roles carry and the importance of using that power to not give up on those still in captivity.

“I, along with millions of other women, haven’t given up. Not on these young women. And not on our humanity. I call upon every person to speak out for all the hostages—women and men—still being held by terrorists and help bring them home," she concluded.