Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “profound shock” over videos showing two emaciated hostages in Gaza, with the EU also denouncing the clips on Sunday and demanding the release of all remaining captives after nearly 22 months of war.
Over the past few days, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three videos showing two hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David have sparked strong reactions among Israelis, fuelling renewed calls to reach a truce and hostage release deal without delay.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office late Saturday said he had spoken with the families of the two hostages and “expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations”.
Netanyahu “told the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing”, the statement added.
Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of people had rallied in the coastal hub of Tel Aviv to urge Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of the remaining captives.
In the clips shared by the Palestinian Islamist groups, 21-year-old Braslavski, a German-Israeli dual national, and 24-year-old David both appear weak and malnourished.
There was particular outrage in Israel over images of David who appeared to be digging what he said in the staged video was his own grave.
The videos make references to the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where UN-mandated experts have warned a “famine is unfolding”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the images “are appalling and expose the barbarity of Hamas”, calling for the release of “all hostages… immediately and unconditionally”.
– ‘Hamas must disarm’ –
Kallas said in the same post on X that “Hamas must disarm and end its rule in Gaza” — demands endorsed earlier this week by Arab countries, including key mediators Qatar and Egypt.
She added that “large-scale humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach those in need”.
Israel has heavily restricted the entry of aid into Gaza, which was already under blockade for 15 years before the war began.
UN agencies, humanitarian groups and analysts say that much of the trickle of food aid that Israel allows in is looted or diverted in chaotic circumstances.
Many desperate Palestinians are left to risk their lives under fire seeking what aid is distributed through controlled channels.
On Sunday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed nine Palestinians who were waiting to collect food rations from a site operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) near the southern city of Rafah.
“The soldiers opened fire on people. I was there, no one posed any threat” to the Israeli forces, 31-year-old witness Jabr al-Shaer told AFP by phone.
There was no comment from the military.
Five more people were killed near a different GHF aid site in central Gaza on Sunday, while Israeli attacks elsewhere killed another five people, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
– ‘Emaciated and desperate’ –
Israeli newspapers dedicated their front pages on Sunday to the plight of the hostages, with Maariv decrying “hell in Gaza” and Yedioth Ahronoth showing a “malnourished, emaciated and desperate” David.
Left-leaning Haaretz declared that “Netanyahu is in no rush” to rescue the captives, echoing claims by critics that the longtime leader has prolonged the war for his own political survival.
Braslavski and David are among the 49 hostages taken during Hamas’s 2023 attack who are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Most of the 251 hostages seized in the attack have been released during two short-lived truces in the war, some in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official figures.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,430 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said one of its staff members was killed in an Israeli attack on its Khan Yunis headquarters, in southern Gaza.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of a strike” in that area.
Media restrictions and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP cannot independently verify tolls and details provided by various parties.
An AFP journalist aboard a French army plane airdropping aid on Saturday saw widespread destruction at the Gaza City port and elsewhere in the territory’s north, with entire neighbourhoods levelled.
– ‘Provocation’ –
In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on Sunday, firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a filmed statement that “the response to Hamas’s horror videos” should include Gaza’s occupation and plans for the “voluntary emigration” of its people.
The video was taken at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, which is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, though they are barred from praying there under a long-standing convention.
Jordan, which acts as the site’s custodian, condemned the minister’s latest visit there as “an unacceptable provocation”, while Hamas called it “a deepening of the ongoing aggression against our Palestinian people”.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “Israel’s policy of maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed and will not change”.
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© Agence France-Presse
