The family of one of the hostages still being held in Gaza has slammed Hamas for ‘deliberately’ starving him as part of a ‘propaganda’ campaign.
Evyatar David, 24, was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, while attending the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel.
He’s been held in Gaza ever since, but new video footage of David has been released by Hamas showing him in a tunnel.
While digging what he said was his own grave, David was heard saying in the video: ‘I haven’t eaten for days… I barely got drinking water.’
His family said in a statement: ‘We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton, buried alive.’
Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, slammed the footage as an attempt to ‘pressure Israel’.
Western leaders and the Red Cross have also slammed the footage and called for the release of all hostages, and called for aid to be let into Gaza.
Hamas replied and said it would ‘respond positively’ to any Red Cross request to deliver food and medicine to prisoners, but only if humanitarian corridors and aid are opened into Gaza permanently and air strikes are stopped.
Israel has come under increased scrutiny as thousands of Gazans have begun to starve, due to a lack of aid allowed in at checkpoints along the border.
On October 7, 2023, 251 Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas during a cross-border attack. 49 remain in Gaza, 27 of which are believed to be dead.
Elsewhere in Gaza, photos of starving Palestinians, some of them babies, have emerged in the past weeks, sparking public outcry for intervention in the conflict, which is about to enter its third year.
Israel has denied any responsibility for what experts have deemed a famine, despite controlling the flow of all aid into the enclave.
The UN documented dozens of deaths from malnutrition during the last week of July, citing some who collapsed in the streets while trying to reach food.
The desperation for food has led to crowding at the few aid locations in Gaza. 73 people were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) while trying to reach aid.
On July 30, blood mixed with flour as the dead were wheeled away in carts after the IDF opened fire at hundreds of Palestinians looking for food at an aid point in the Gaza Strip.
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The Israeli Defence Forces, who control the Zikim Crossing distribution point, admitted firing shots when their soldiers felt ‘threatened’.
Hours later, more than 48 were dead with hundreds more injured at the main entry point for humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, according to a local hospital.
Hamas claimed the shooting lasted around three hours as thousands were funnelled towards the trucks delivering vital aid.
The Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) say Israeli military has turned these humanitarian points into ‘killing grounds, deliberately targeting civilians in their most vulnerable state’.
In a statement, the IDF said: ‘We place utmost importance on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and work to enable and facilitate the transfer of aid in coordination with the international community, and certainly do not intentionally act against humanitarian aid trucks.’
What little food remains has been pushed to black-market extremities, as shown by prices shared with Metro by Christian Aid workers on the ground.
A 25kg sack of flour is now more expensive than a Michelin-star dinner in Paris, costing as much as £414, compared to £8.80 before the start of the war.
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