Hamas uses the starvation of its victims and psychological torture for cynical propaganda. The family of a hostage has now agreed to the release of a disturbing video – they want to make their son's suffering visible.
A hostage held by the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip is forced to dig her "own grave" in a propaganda video by the terrorist organization. The nearly five-minute clip shows 24-year-old Evjatar David, emaciated to the bone, in a narrow tunnel. The kidnapping victim's family consented to its publication.
"Hamas is using our son as a test subject in a vicious hunger campaign," the family wrote in a statement."He is being left to starve to death, solely for Hamas's propaganda purposes."
David was abducted into the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, while attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel during an attack by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. In the video, he lists the days in July when he received only beans or lentils, or nothing at all. Sometimes there were two or three days in a row when he received no food at all.
At one point, he addresses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I have been completely abandoned by you, my Prime Minister, by you, who should be taking care of me and all the other prisoners.” Hamas refers to its hostages as “prisoners” in its propaganda language.
A clearly staged scene at the end of the clip shows David with a shovel in his hand, digging a depression in the sandy floor of the tunnel."Here I am digging my own grave," he says. He is getting weaker by the day, and he believes this will be his burial place. The clip concludes with the text message:"Only a ceasefire agreement will bring them (the hostages) back."
Hamas: Do not lay down arms until a Palestinian state is established
According to Israeli sources, 50 hostages are still being held by Hamas and other groups, of whom at least 20 are believed to be alive. Months of efforts to achieve a ceasefire and the release of the hostages through indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are considered virtually unsuccessful for the time being.
Hamas declares that it will not lay down its arms until an independent Palestinian state is established. It says the armed resistance can be abandoned"only through the full restoration of our national rights, which include, first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," according to a statement.
dpa/rtr/saha
