Both Braslavski, 21, and David, 24, were taken hostage from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023 during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. <\/p>\n
They are among 49 hostages, out of 251 originally taken, who Israel says are still being held in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead.<\/p>\n
After the videos were released, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the two hostage families, expressing “profound shock” and telling them that efforts to return all the hostages “will continue constantly and relentlessly”.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Netanyahu spoke to the head of the Red Cross in the region, requesting his immediate involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages.<\/p>\n
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was “appalled” by the videos that gave “stark evidence of the life-threatening conditions in which the hostages are being held”. <\/p>\n
The charity reiterated its call to be granted access to the hostages to assess their condition, give them medical support and facilitate contact with their families.<\/p>\n
Hamas’s armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said it would respond positively to any Red Cross request to deliver food and medicine to prisoners if humanitarian corridors were opened into Gaza on a regular and permanent basis, and air strikes halted during the time of receiving aid.<\/p>\n
The Red Cross has faced heavy criticism in Israel over its role in the war, with claims that it has failed to help the hostages being held in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, amid anger over chaotic scenes as hostages were freed as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas, the organisation explained the limits of its role, saying it relies on the warring parties’ goodwill to operate in conflict zones. <\/p>\n
There has also been criticism from Palestinians, as the group has not been allowed to visit Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails since 7 October 2023. <\/p>\n
At the weekend in Tel Aviv, crowds of protesters and hostage families gathered once again, calling on the Israeli government to secure the release of hostages. <\/p>\n
David and Braslavski’s families said at a rally on Saturday that “everyone must get out of hell, now.”<\/p>\n
In one video, Braslavski is seen crying as he says he has run out of food and water and only ate three “crumbs of falafels” that day. He says he is unable to stand or walk, and “is at death’s door”.<\/p>\n
Braslavski’s family in a statement said “they managed to break Rom” and pleaded to Israeli and US leaders to bring their son home.<\/p>\n
“He has simply been forgotten there,” they said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both Braslavski, 21, and David, 24, were taken hostage from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-316127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114968282123643374","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}