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There are still 49 prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
GAZA CITY, BRATISLAVA. A young, visibly emaciated man stands in only shorts in a narrow, darkened tunnel."I'm digging my own grave right now," he says to the camera with a shovel in his hand.
This is a video of 24-year-old Israeli Eviatar David, released by Hamas on Friday. Palestinian terrorists have been holding him in the Gaza Strip since an attack on October 7, 2023. They kidnapped him from the Nova music festival in the Negev Desert in the Israeli border area.
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The day before, another terrorist organization, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released a video of 21-year-old hostage Rom Braslavsky, who says he has no food or water and can't even stand up."I can't breathe or live. You have to stop what you're doing here," he says through tears.
The footage has shocked world leaders and Israelis, who have long called for the release of all hostages. Criticism of the Israeli government is also rising, along with the latest statements from Hamas, which insists on fighting until an independent Palestinian state is established.
Humanitarian organizations have also criticized the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for deliberately starving the people of Gaza, which it denies and blames on Hamas.
"There is growing evidence that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are causing a rise in hunger-related deaths. The Gaza Strip is currently experiencing the worst possible famine scenario," the United Nations (UN) said in a statement in late July.
Starved on video
This is not the first Hamas video in which David has appeared. In February, he and fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal were forced to watch from a car as three other captives were released.
"Netanyahu, our friends are going home with us after five hundred days. We ask you, please, save us, that's all we want. Israeli citizens, help us, we want to be like them," the men say in the video.
"Netanyahu, you destroyed us. Negotiate properly - just sign the deal and end it," David also says in the video. Compared to the latest video, he has short hair and is at a normal weight.
