State Dept. Says Hamas Refused to Release All Women and Children: They Don’t Want Hostages Talking About ‘What Happened to Them’

State Department Spokesman Matt Miller hinted that Hamas refused to release all of their hostages during the pause in their war with Israel because they don’t want the world to know what they did to their captives.

Miller held a briefing on Monday where a reporter questioned him on why he didn’t specifically speak of Hamas’ use of sexual violence when addressing the atrocities committed by the terror organization. Asked why he hasn’t specifically condemned the rapes by Hamas militants, Miller said it was “only because we haven’t made an independent assessment our own,” but there’s “no reason” to doubt the reports of Hamas’ sexual violence.

After that, Miller spoke of one possible reason why the Hamas-Israel truce fell apart amid hostage release negotiations, emphasis ours:

When you look at all of the atrocities that Hamas carried out on October 7th, and the atrocities that they’ve carried out since. The fact that they continue to hold women hostages, the fact that they continue to hold children hostages, the fact that it seems one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over, that they’ve been holding hostage. 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. Certainly, there is very little that I would put beyond Hamas when it comes to its treatment of civilians, and particularly, its treatment of women.

Later in the briefing, Miller faced follow-up questions about whether that his comments were “conjecture,” or if there was “evidence to believe Hamas is deliberately continuing to hold on to female hostages because there are concerns that they will speak about the atrocities that they were subjected.”

Miller walked his comments back somewhat, responding “I will accept the edit. Not-fact seems a better way to say it. But let me let me answer the question.”

“The humanitarian pause which resulted in the release of hostages, is negotiating with some very clear terms, and that was that children and women would be the first priority to be released,” he said. “Near the end of that pause last Wednesday, we were getting towards the end, Hamas was still holding onto women that should have been the next to be released. They refused to release them. They broke the deal, came up with excuses why. Ultimately, I don’t think any of those excuses were credible, and I shouldn’t get into any of them here. But certainly one of the reasons that a number of people believe they refused to release them as they didn’t want people to hear what those women would have to say publicly.”

Miller went on to say he didn’t know this “for a fact,” even as he continued to be pressed on if he had evidence for why Hamas hasn’t released their female captives.

Watch above via the U.S. Department of State’s YouTube channel.