Head of psychiatry at Tel Aviv medical centre says hostages have undergone worst abuse she has witnessed

Many of the hostages released from detention in Gaza by Hamas in November still require intensive treatment for the trauma from their weeks in captivity, a leading Israeli psychiatrist has said.

Renana Eitan, the head of psychiatry at the Ichilov Tel Aviv medical centre, said the hostages had undergone the worst abuse and trauma she had witnessed in her career.

In today’s newsletter: The Hamas attack on Israel, and the country’s overwhelming armed response, have destabilised the region and caused unfathomable suffering

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Good morning. For more than 80 days, a bloody conflict has been raging in Israel and Gaza. On 7 October Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel, and gunmen broke through security barriers in the worst breach of the country’s defences in five decades – 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. Harrowing reports have emerged of sexual violence against women, of torture and abuse of adults and children.

The response from Israel was swift and brutal, with the government promising a “mighty vengeance” against Hamas, vowing to destroy the militant group altogether. In the months since the attack, the Israeli military has unleashed one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in history, according to one expert. More than 20,400 people have been killed, including nearly 8,000 children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, in the two and a half months since the bombardment began. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced; entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. The UN has described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic” and the World Food Programme has said that there is a “catastrophic hunger crisis”. Safe drinking water is desperately scarce, raising the risk of disease outbreaks.

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Here are more details of the Egyptian plan to end the conflict, as reported by the Associated Press:

The call is for an initial ceasefire of up to two weeks during which Palestinian militants would free 40 to 50 hostages in return for the release of 120 to 150 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, the Egyptian official said.

At the same time negotiations would continue on extending the ceasefire and the release of more hostages and bodies held by Palestinian militants, he said.

Egypt and Qatar would work with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, to agree on the establishment of a government of experts, he added.

The government would rule Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period as Palestinian factions settled their disputes and agreed on a roadmap to hold presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the meantime, Israel and Hamas would continue to negotiate a comprehensive “all-for-all” deal, the official said. This would include the release of all remaining hostages in return for all Palestinian prisoners in Israel, as well as the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian militants’ halting of rocket attacks into Israel.