As President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, visits Israel, the terrorist groups Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have released propaganda videos of two Israeli hostages in their captivity since October 7, 2023.
On Thursday, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad (PIJ) released a disturbing video of German-Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, claiming that it was recorded shortly after the terrorist group ‘lost contact’ with his captors in Gaza. The next day, Hamas published an equally depraved video of Israeli hostage Evyatar David. The videos sent out by the terrorist groups show emaciated, frail, and broken men who have endured 665 days of captivity in Gaza.
Just as in the past, these videos were aimed at tormenting the families of the hostages and manipulating the Israeli public opinion. The Hamas delegation in Qatar walked out of negotiations last week after rejecting a U.S. ceasefire proposal. Hamas, which boastfully recorded and publicized its atrocities on October 7, 2023, has been releasing videos of murdered, tortured, and tormented hostages ever since.
Rom Braslavski, a 21-year-old resident of Jerusalem, was kidnapped by terrorists on October 7, 2023, from the grounds of the Nova festival, where he was serving as a security guard. “The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Thursday published a video of hostage Rom Braslavski, whom they are holding captive in the Gaza Strip,” The Times of Israel reported. “The terror group claimed that the six-minute video was recorded days before it lost contact with the captors holding Braslavski, and alleged that the hostage’s fate was unknown.”
On Saturday, Hamas released another video of David, showing him with a shovel digging his own grave in a terror tunnel.
In keeping with the wishes of the hostage’s family, only a single photo from the video was published by the media.”Israeli media do not air such video clips unless asked to by the hostages’ families. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum requested that media outlets only publish a still from the video approved by Braslavski’s family,” the news website added.
Reporting the reaction of Braslavski’s mother, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported:
“They broke my son,” [Rom’s mother, Tammy] Braslavski told [Hebrew] media outlet Ynet , “I want him home now.””I know how many times he was struck [by his captors], because Rom does not cry,” she said. “He looks starved; all of his bones are sticking out.”
Evyatar David, a 24-year-old resident of the central Israeli town of Kfar Sava, was also taken hostage at the Nova festival. “Hamas published a video of hostage Evyatar David on Friday evening,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “In the video, David can be seen crossing off days on a makeshift calendar hung up on the side of an underground Gaza tunnel.”
“David is also shirtless, and all of his ribs can be seen. He appears to have been held alone for months,” the newspaper added.
With heartbreaking videos like these, Hamas wants to force an Israeli military withdrawal and regain control of Gaza after nearly 22 months of war in the wake of the October 7 massacre.
While Hamas has been looting and hoarding food and aid supplies coming to Gaza, hostages have been deprived of food and medication. Last week, the Israeli military released a video showing Hamas terrorists feasting inside a Gaza tunnel. The clip shows terrorists waving food items before the camera while shouting and chanting cheerfully in Arabic.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been securing the inflow of humanitarian relief to Gaza — often risking the lives of Israeli troops. In May 2024, four IDF soldiers were killed in Hamas rocket fire as they secured Gaza’s main humanitarian aid crossing.
“The U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said Wednesday that it has distributed nearly 100 million food rations in the Gaza Strip since it began operations,” the Israeli news website Ynetnews noted. “A senior Israeli security official said that since the start of Operation Gideon’s Chariots on May 19, more than 5,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza. These include over 1.5 million weekly food packages provided by an American company and 3,000 tons of baby formula.”
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