In recent days, two Palestinian armed groups have released videos of hostages that underscore the horrendous conditions they are facing.
On August 1, Hamas’ armed wing published two videos showing an emaciated 24-year-old Evyatar David in a tunnel, first sitting next to a chart that he says tracks his extremely limited food intake and then scraping at the ground with a shovel while he says he is digging his own grave.
The day before, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s armed wing published a video of emaciated 22-year-old hostage Rom Braslavski, in which he says how weak he feels due to a lack of food and water. “It’s important that the world sees,” his mother said, “despite my personal pain in publicly showing my Rom in the condition he’s in.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the recent videos are evidence that Palestinian armed groups are purposefully starving hostages. Hamas denies this, saying in an August 4 letter to the United Nations Security Council that hostages “are experiencing the same conditions as the people of Gaza.” Israeli authorities’ use of starvation as a weapon of war and their intentional deprivation of aid and basic services—amounting to war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide—have caused mass starvation across Gaza.
Taking hostages is a war crime, yet Palestinian armed groups have remained impervious to global calls to free them, including at a special session of the Security Council on August 5. David and Braslavski are among the 251 civilians and security force personnel Palestinian armed groups took hostage in Israel on October 7, 2023. Israeli authorities say that 49 hostages remain in Gaza, of whom only 20 are presumed to be alive. Palestinian armed groups should immediately and safely release all civilians they are holding hostage, just as Israeli authorities should immediately and safely release all unlawfully held Palestinians. International law also requires Palestinian armed groups in Gaza to treat those they are holding humanely and ensure adequate food. Publishing videos showing hostages in such a vulnerable state is a form of inhumane treatment and constitutes “outrages upon [their] personal dignity,” also a war crime.
Other countries should use all their leverage to press for an end to this ongoing nightmare.
