Video: The Siegels appearing at the United Nations on November 12, 2025

During the session, Donenfeld presented Israel's complete commitment to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, urged committee members to adhere to facts and law, and requested they avoid echoing antisemitic propaganda.

He stated, "The testimonies we heard here today aren't just personal stories – they're a moral and legal indictment against the world's silence. The State of Israel is fully committed to the principles of the Convention for the Prevention of Torture and ensuring human dignity wherever it may be."

He continued, "This commitment can't be one-sided. The international community's silence facing torture, kidnappings, and abuse violates the very spirit of the Convention. The Convention mustn't remain just a document – it must be a moral compass demanding action."

Keith Siegel testified, "I'm not asking for your mercy. I'm asking you to ensure the horrors the terrorists committed against me and others in captivity never happen again." He recounted being held captive for 50 days alongside his wife Aviva until her release, then held sometimes with other captives and sometimes in complete isolation.

In total, he spent roughly six months entirely alone. "At 66, cut off from the world, terrified, not knowing what happened to my loved ones. Just for 'amusement,' the guards would compare our body parts with another captive's, threaten us with knives, humiliate us, prevent us from using the bathroom until we couldn't hold it anymore."

He added, "Every basic human right was stripped from me. I was starved and even denied water. More than once, terrorists forced me to strip before them and shaved my body."

Aviva Siegel, Keith's wife, also testified before the committee. "When we were taken underground in Gaza, there was a child from my community. The Hamas terrorists bound his hands with plastic cuffs. He was covered in blood, we were covered in blood, and afterward, when one of the terrorists came to remove his cuffs, he cut his hand. I wanted to scream, and I saw the terrorist smiling while doing it."

She continued, "For 51 days, I was certain I'd die any moment. They threatened me, starved me, gave me insufficient water, I lost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) in 51 days. I'd hide food for Keith. I saw him, he lost weight. We lost weight while the terrorists gained weight – they ate and chewed before us while giving us nothing."

She further described, "One day, one of the young women emerged from the shower trembling. I wasn't permitted to hug her, but I hugged her regardless. After some time, she told us one of the terrorists touched her entire body and did whatever he wanted with her. There was also another young woman taken by a terrorist to the shower, told to undress, and forced to perform oral sex on him and smile afterward."

She added, "Additionally, a 16-year-old girl was forced to shower before one of the terrorists. She's 16 – she'd never shown her body to anyone, and a Hamas terrorist just stood there, looked at her, and smiled."

Aviva described the helplessness in captivity. "The terrible thing for me was watching them torture my husband Keith and what they did to the girls. I was forbidden to hug, offer help, or cry. I tried constantly to maintain my humanity. They forced us to lie down from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. the next morning, we were forbidden to move. My body ached, I wanted to stretch, sit, scream 'Just let me sit five minutes' – they wouldn't allow it. They threatened to kill me."

She continued, "One night I extended my leg from under the blanket, a Hamas terrorist came and screamed at me that I'm not allowed to do that. It sounds like something small, but that's the control level they had over us constantly. Most of the time I suffered stomach pains and diarrhea because they gave us contaminated water. I'm 62 and had to request permission to use the bathroom."

Justice Ministry Director General Donenfeld thanked the delegation members for their professional and dedicated work throughout the recent period, given the numerous challenges they faced. The Israeli delegation included senior representatives from the Justice Ministry, Foreign Ministry, National Security Council, Israel Police, Prison Service, Population and Immigration Authority, and the Military Advocate General's office. They were accompanied by captivity survivors Aviva and Keith Siegel, residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

The delegation's appearance was conducted as part of implementing the State of Israel's commitments within the framework of the International Convention Against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which convenes every four years and follows submission of Israel's sixth periodic report on implementing the Convention, submitted to the committee in 2020.

The post '16-year-old girl was forced to shower before terrorist' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged cordial words and plotted modest steps on arms control and diplomacy but emerged from their much-anticipated Swiss summit Wednesday largely where they started – with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The two leaders reached an important but hardly relationship-changing agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after they were called home as the relationship deteriorated in recent months. And Biden and Putin agreed to start working on a plan to solidify their countries' last remaining treaty limiting nuclear weapons.

But their three hours of talks on the shores of Lake Geneva left both men standing firmly in the same positions they had started in.

"I'm not confident he'll change his behavior," Biden said at a post-summit news conference when he was asked about what evidence he saw that former KGB agent Putin would adjust his ways and actions. "What will change his behavior is the rest of the world reacts to them, and they diminish their standing in the world. I'm not confident in anything."

Biden noted that one of the understandings reached by the leaders was that both countries must work together to ensure that Iran doesn't acquire nuclear weapons.

Putin also talked about preventing a resurgence of terrorist violence in Afghanistan. Biden said it would be very much in Russia's interest to not see that happen.

The American president also pressed Putin to drop a push to close the last international humanitarian crossing into Syria, making clear the matter was of "significant importance" to the US.

No deal was reached to keep it open, however.

Russia is threatening to use its UN Security Council veto to close the aid route for millions of Syrians internally displaced by that country's war.

Both the White House and Kremlin had set low expectations going into the summit. They issued a joint statement after the conclusion that said their meeting showed the "practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world."

But over and over, Biden defaulted to "we'll find out" when assessing whether their discussions about nuclear power, cybersecurity and other thorny issues will pay off.

Back-to-back news conferences by Biden and Putin after the summit also put in stark relief that getting at the root of tensions between the US and Russia will remain an enormously difficult task – including when the two sides, at least in public comments, sketched dramatically different realities on cyber matters.

Biden came into the summit pushing Putin to clamp down on the surge of Russian-originated cybersecurity and ransomware attacks that have targeted businesses and government agencies in the US and around the globe. But when the summit ended, it wasn't evident that more than superficial progress had been made.

Biden said he made clear to Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines – including going after major American infrastructure – his administration would respond and "the consequences of that would be devastating."

"I think that the last thing he [Putin] wants now is a Cold War," Biden told reporters, adding that he had stressed during the talks that "certain critical infrastructure should be off-limits to attack – period – by cyber or any other means."

Putin, in turn, continued to insist Russia had nothing to do with cyber intrusions despite US intelligence evidence that indicates otherwise.

"Most of the cyberattacks in the world are carried out from the cyber realm of the United States," said Putin, also adding Canada, two Latin American countries he didn't name and Britain to the list.

While the US, Canada and Britain all engage in cyberespionage, the most damaging cyberattacks on record have come either from state-backed Russian hackers or Russian-speaking ransomware criminals who operate with impunity in Russia and allied nations.

In fact, the worst have been attributed by the United States and the European Union to Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, including the NotPetya virus that did more than $10 billion in economic damage in 2017, hitting companies including shipping giant Maersk, the pharmaceutical company Merck and food company Mondolez.

Putin agreed at the summit that Russia will begin consultations with the US on the matter and acknowledged that ransomware and cyberattacks are big problems. Still, he maintained that the two countries "just need to abandon various insinuations."

Despite the clear differences, Biden insisted that progress had been made, scolding reporters for being too pessimistic during a chat on the tarmac just before he boarded Air Force One to return home.

"There is a value to being realistic and putting on ... an optimistic face," the president said.

Biden said the two leaders spent a "great deal of time" discussing cybersecurity and he believed Putin understood the US position.

"I pointed out to him, we have significant cyber capability," Biden said. "In fact, [if] they violate basic norms, we will respond."

A disconnect between the two leaders was apparent on other matters, large and small.

Biden raised human rights issues with Putin, including the fate of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin defended Navalny's prison sentence and deflected repeated questions about the mistreatment of Russian opposition leaders by highlighting US domestic turmoil, including the Black Lives Matter protests and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Biden was having none of it.

"My response is kind of what I communicated" to Putin, Biden said. "That's a ridiculous comparison."

Putin held forth for nearly an hour before international reporters after the summit. While showing defiance at questions about Biden pressing him on human rights, he also expressed respect for the US president as an experienced political leader.

The Russian leader noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and that the American president also spoke about his family – messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden's "moral values."

Although Putin raised doubt that the US-Russia relationship could soon return to a measure of equilibrium of years past, he suggested that Biden was someone he could work with.

"The meeting was actually very efficient," Putin said. "It was substantive, it was specific. It was aimed at achieving results, and one of them was pushing back the frontiers of trust."

The summit had a somewhat awkward beginning – both men appeared to avoid looking directly at each other during a brief and chaotic photo opportunity before a scrum of jostling reporters.

It ended sooner than expected. Biden said that was because they had covered all the key areas and then "looked at each other like, OK, what next?"

Then Biden answered his own question.

"What is going to happen next is we are going to be able to look back, look ahead in three to six months and say 'Did the things we agreed to sit down and try to work out, did it work?'"

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

At home, Biden's Republican opponents quickly criticized him for failing to block a major Russian-backed natural gas pipeline being built in Europe.

US Senator Lindsay Graham said he was disturbed to hear the president suggest Putin would be troubled by how other countries view him.

"It is clear to me that Putin could care less about how he's viewed by others and, quite frankly, would enjoy the reputation of being able to successfully interfere in the internal matters of other countries," the South Carolina senator said.

The post 'Practical work' summit for Biden, Putin: No punches or hugs appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In a possible sign that nuclear talks between global powers and Iran in Vienna have reached an impasse, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told Israel Hayom on Tuesday that negotiations with the Islamic republic were at a difficult stage, not in the least due to Iran's upcoming presidential election June 18.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Cassis spoke to Israel Hayom after meeting with Swiss President Guy Parmelin and US President Joe Biden in Geneva.

Asked to describe the current stage of talks with Iran, Cassis said: "We've spoken with the Americans a great deal about Iran. The situation right now is difficult. In a few days, there will be presidential elections [in Iran].

"The expectations [of success] from the talks aren't very high. With that, the American administration intends to move forward and to find a hard path to an agreement," emphasized Cassis, whose country is representing the US in the negotiations.

On the eve of Biden's first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Parmelin expressed hope that the two leaders would use the opportunity to inject optimism and positivity into the international political arena in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Swill president also expressed his country's willingness to facilitate a rapprochement between the US and Iran.

It's not clear what will happen Wednesday in Geneva when Biden meets Putin for the first time since taking office. Both sides acknowledge that the relationship between the two nations is dismal and neither holds out much hope for meaningful areas of agreement.

"There's no guarantee you can change a person's behavior or the behavior of his country. Autocrats have enormous power and they don't have to answer to a public," said Biden during a news conference Sunday after the Group of Seven summit in England. "And the fact is that it may very well be, if I respond in kind – which I will – that it doesn't dissuade him and he wants to keep going."

Biden had not minced words when it comes to assessing Putin. He said in an interview earlier this year that he agreed with an assessment that Putin was a "killer," and he once declared that Putin didn't have a soul.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Swiss FM: Nuclear talks with Iran at difficult stage appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Geneva prosecutors' indictment of the diamond trader and two others this week revives a headache that appeared to have eased this year when Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) walked away from a giant iron ore project in the West African nation.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

BSGR abandoned the Simandou project as part of a settlement announced in February ending a long-running dispute, the company and Guinea's government said at the time.

Claudio Mascotto, a Geneva prosecutor, said on Monday that he was seeking prison terms of two to 10 years for Steinmetz and two associates over the alleged payment of $10 million in bribes for mining licenses between 2005 and 2010.

"His defense is simple, he absolutely contests all the charges against him," Marc Bonnant, a prominent Geneva lawyer representing Steinmetz, told Reuters.

"They have no basis in the facts or in law," he said.

Frederic Cilins, a French former adviser to BSGR who was sentenced to two years in prison by a New York federal court in 2014 for obstructing a criminal probe linked to a bribery investigation in Guinea, is one of the two co-defendants.

"My client completely and categorically rejects all the charges. I will plead for an acquittal," his Geneva lawyer, Jean-Marc Carnice, told Reuters, declining to comment further.

Calls to the lawyer of a Belgian woman who has been indicted were not immediately returned.

A trial is not expected for months.

The prosecutor accused the three of "having promised in 2005 and then paid or had bribes paid to one of the wives of former Guinean President Lansana Conte," so as to have mining rights in Simandou allocated to BSGR.

"Just as the Guinea government has backtracked on its claims, here too it will be proven that there was no wrongdoing in Steinmetz's activities," the billionaire's spokesman said on Tuesday.

"It should be emphasized that the investigation was launched in Switzerland at the request of the Guinea government, and under international arbitration, Guinea has retracted its claims, which is why these are baseless charges."

Guinea's mines minister, Abdoulaye Magassouba, told Reuters on Monday that the government was not involved in trying to prosecute Steinmetz, given February's agreement.

"We have signed specific agreements with Steinmetz and we will fully respect the terms of the agreement. It is not possible for a hostile action against BSGR to come from the government," he said.

Administrators for BSGR, a private firm registered in Guernsey, said in March 2018 they would work to return the mining firm to solvency and pay creditors in full after it voluntarily entered the administration to protect it from legal disputes related to the project in Guinea.

The Guinean government is no longer party to the Geneva criminal case, but Mascotto pressed ahead after six years of investigation and multiple requests abroad for legal assistance.

The Geneva daily Le Temps reported he had sought assistance from Guinea, Israel and Ukraine to trace alleged financial flows and identify account owners.

Steinmetz, a former resident of Geneva who moved back to Israel in 2016, attended questioning sessions by the prosecutor, Bonnant said.

"He has given all the indications he could and all the documents to which he had access [to]," Bonnant said. "And of course he will attend the trial."

The post Israeli billionaire to fight corruption charges in Geneva court appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.