The Hamas terror group on Friday published a new propaganda video of hostage Evyatar David, a day after Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of hostage Rom Braslavski.
The family has yet to approve its publication to the public, but the footage was shared by some on social media, leading David’s sister to criticize those who did so. At the same time, she said, “Those who have seen it now understand how serious it is and the physical condition Evyatar was in when, just 40 minutes ago, he gave me a million punches to the heart.”
Former hostage Liri Albag wrote on social media, “I’m sitting here and I can’t stop crying… Seeing the signs of life from Rom and Evyatar, right before Friday dinner, knowing I have food on the table, knowing I got out of there, and knowing it’s been half a year since I was lucky enough to return, and remembering where my brothers are, realizing they’re still there — it crushes me.
“I may look strong, but I’m shattered, and I’m wearing a mask. I’m telling you this with deep pain — we don’t need such images to push for a deal. Why isn’t it obvious that they should come back now? Why is it legitimate that some of our people are sitting there, starving and being tortured, going through a repeated holocaust — and we’re silent?”
Another former hostage, Eliya Cohen, wrote: “When I see the videos of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, it takes me back to the day a terrorist came to me and said: ‘There’s no more food, no more water, no more anything. You’ll eat whatever is left of our food, because your people are starving us — so we’ll starve you.’”
He added, “Don’t get me wrong — I don’t have an ounce of compassion for those sons of bitches. But while we’re being shredded in the global media, the people we’re trying to target are sitting underground, and 90 percent of the time they’re in the kitchen, trading maqluba recipes, dipping hummus.”
Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, posted on X: “Holocaust 2025.”
Israeli media do not air terror groups’ propaganda clips unless asked to by the families of the hostages.
Forty-nine hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023, attack, are still held captive in Gaza. At least 20 of the captives are thought to be alive. Hamas is also holding the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.