Gaza Israeli hostage videos up pressure on Netanyahu for ceasefire : NPR
The hostage families protest to demand the release of their relatives from the captivity of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the place known as “Square hostages” in Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday.
Ariel Schalit / AP
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Ariel Schalit / AP
Jerusalem-New images of emaciated Israeli hostages held in Gaza horrified the Israelis and added pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire with Hamas, while his government considers another expansion of the war of almost 22 months.
Videos published at the end of last week by militant groups of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad show two skeletal hostages pleading for their lives. In one, Evyatar David says he is digging his own grave and talks about days without food. In the other, Rom Braslavski twists in agony on a dirty mattress and says that the wounds in his foot prevent him from being able to stand up.
The Associated Press does not normally publish videos of hostages filmed under constraint, but publishes brief extracts after receiving the consent of their family.
The videos have led tens of thousands of Israelis to go down the streets on Saturday evening and to demand a cease-fire contract, in one of the biggest participations in weekly demonstrations in recent months.
“In this new video, his eyes are extinct. He is helpless, and me too,” said Braslavski’s mother Tami in a statement.
Famine warnings in Gaza
The videos have been published in the form of warnings concerning famine among the Palestinians develop in Gaza. Images of hungry Palestinians have attracted the international condemnation of Israeli policies limiting the deliveries of aid on the territory.
The hostage families fear that lack of food will also threaten the remaining hostages. It is believed that less than half of the 50 hostages are alive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages and met the Red Cross to ask him to bring hostages to food and medicine – access that the organization says that he has never been granted by Hamas.
“When I see them, I understand exactly what Hamas wants,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. “They don’t want to agree. They want to break us using these horror videos.”
Netanyahu said the videos have renewed her determination to release hostages and eliminate Hamas. He added that the militant group hungry the hostages “like the hungry Nazis the Jews”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it was “dismayed by heartbreaking videos” and called for hostage access.
Ofir Braslavski, whose Roma son was removed by Islamic jihad on October 7, 2023, poses for a portrait in Almon, an Israeli colony in the West Bank on Monday.
Ohad zwigenberg / ap
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The Hamas military wing said that it was ready to respond positively to the Red Cross requests to deliver food to the hostages, if the humanitarian corridors for aid deliveries are open in “regular and permanent” in Gaza. He also said that hostages “eat the same food as our fighters and the general public” and denied any intentional starvation.
Israel’s mission to the UN said it had asked for an emergency meeting from the United Nations Until Security Council, which will take place on Tuesday. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Sa’ar, said that he will go to New York for the meeting.
The videos were used by Hamas “to force us their conditions to stay in power in Gaza,” said Sa’ar.
Netanyahu said on Monday that he would summon the cabinet this week to instruct the military of Israel on how to achieve the objectives of defeating the enemy, release the hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer constitute a threat to Israel: “All, without exception.”
No more famine deaths
The hostage videos have emerged while experts warn that Gaza faces “the worst case of famine” due to the blockade of Israel.
No aid has entered Gaza between March 2 and 19, and the aid has been limited since then. The United Nations indicates that at least 850 people were killed by trying to access the aid near the chaotic and dangerous distribution sites created by Israel and the United States in May.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Monday that five other Palestinian adults died of malnutrition causes in recent 24 hours. In total, 87 adults died of malnutrition problems since the ministry began from such deaths in late June, he said.
Eighty-three children have died of causes related to malnutrition since the start of the war in Gaza, the ministry said. The Israeli government has denied that people are starving in Gaza.
About 1,200 people, mainly civilians, were killed in October 7, 2023, the attack on Hamas against southern Israel which sparked the war, and 251 others were removed. The military reprisal offensive of Israel killed more than 60,900 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but says that women and children represent more than half of the dead, is part of the government of Hamas and with health professionals. The UN and other independent experts consider its figures as the number of most reliable victims. Israel challenged the figures but did not provide his.
