Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday urged the world to bring attention to the hostages held in Gaza before heading to a United Nations Security Council session on the issue, saying, “It must be front and center on the world stage.”
Israel called the UN session after Hamas and its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad published videos last week showing hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David appearing weak and emaciated, causing deep shock and distress in Israel.
Speaking at a press conference for international media in Jerusalem, Sa’ar called out international leaders and the UN for what he called “unfair” attitudes toward the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and for making diplomatic moves that encourage the terror group to harden its stance in negotiations.
Sa’ar said he will participate in the UNSC session in New York on Tuesday to “put an end to the phenomenon of kidnapping civilians” and “make it not worthwhile for the terrorists” to use hostages “to achieve their goals.”
The foreign minister thanked the United States and Panama, saying they assisted him in arranging the meeting.
“Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad are using the starvation and torture of hostages as part of a deliberate and well-planned sadistic propaganda campaign,” Sa’ar charged.
“These organizations also planned the starvation campaign of lies together,” Sa’ar continued, referring to allegations of widespread starvation in Gaza as a result of Israel’s wartime policies in the Strip.
“The amount of aid entering proves that it is a fake propaganda campaign. We see the dire condition of our starved hostages, yet they still have not seen representatives of the Red Cross,” Sa’ar added.
In recent weeks, allegations of starvation in Gaza and mounting international condemnation of Israel’s handling of the humanitarian crisis reflect “the unbalanced and twisted anti-Israel agenda of a large part of the international media,” according to Sa’ar.
“The horrible images of the hostages were painfully missing from the front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post and most of the global media. It is shameful,” he said.
Sa’ar also criticized Western countries for announcing they would soon recognize a Palestinian state. France, Canada and the UK announced their intentions to do so in recent weeks.
“These countries must understand the consequences of their actions. I warned on this very stage, some of you were here, that recognizing a virtual Palestinian state would lead to the assassination of the chances to reach a hostage deal and a ceasefire. This is exactly what happened,” Sa’ar said. “They claim that they seek the end of the war, but their actions directly prolonged it.”
Sa’ar thanked the large number of Western allies who called for the unconditional release of hostages in response to the videos and messages from Sa’ar, which also included Britain and France, as well as Germany and the European Union as a whole.
He added that unless he “missed it,” he did not see any declaration from the UN about the hostages, calling this “a hint to where the UN is standing” on the issue — an apparent lack of prioritization that is “totally unbalanced, totally unfair.”
He also called out French President Emmanuel Macron for ostensibly equating Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners in a statement over the weekend, when the French leader called for the release of “hostages on both sides.”
“There aren’t” hostages on both sides, Sa’ar said.
“On one side, you have hostages, brutally kidnapped from their homes on October 7, tortured and held in captivity for almost two years by Hamas,” he continued.
“On the other side, evil murderers serving life sentences,” the top diplomat said. “The simple truth is that you have hostages on one side, and terrorists on the other.”
The war began with invasion of southern Israel by thousands of Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, which saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage. Fifty hostages are still held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.