U.S. State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller on Monday confirmed behind-the-scenes speculations by senior Israeli officials that Hamas refused to release ten Israeli women hostages who are known to be alive, leading to the collapse of a weeklong truce in Gaza, fearing that their accounts from captivity could significantly tarnish Hamas's reputation.
"It seems one of the reasons they don't want to turn women over... and the reason this pause fell apart is they don't want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody," he told the press.
(Itamar Eichner)