'You see your child dying before your eyes, and you can't do anything'
The videos were released as international experts say a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in the coastal territory, where Israel's offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food and other humanitarian aid. Images of starving Palestinians have drawn international condemnation of Israel's conduct.
Families of the hostages fear that the lack of food threatens the remaining hostages, too. Fewer than half of the 50 remaining hostages are believed to be alive, the rest either killed during the October 2023 attack or while in captivity.
Netanyahu said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages and met with the Red Cross to ask that it bring hostages food and medicine — access that the organization says has never been granted by Hamas.
'When I see these, I understand exactly what Hamas wants,' Netanyahu said on Sunday. 'They do not want a deal. They want to break us using these videos of horror.'
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was 'appalled by the harrowing videos' and called for access to the hostages.
Hamas said it is ready to respond 'positively' to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors for aid deliveries are opened in a 'regular and permanent manner' in Gaza. It denied starving the hostages, saying they suffer from the same hunger as ordinary Palestinians.
Braslavski said that in the video of his son, the captors appear to be well-fed. 'This hunger is on purpose, you can see that,' he said. 'It's not because we're not letting aid go in.'
Israel has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the hostages, which will take place on Tuesday. Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he will travel to New York for the meeting.
Israel did not allow any food, medicine or other goods to enter Gaza from early March until mid-May, when it eased its blockade on the territory of some 2 million Palestinians.
The United Nations says nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since then, mostly by Israeli forces as crowds head toward aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that five more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours. A total of 87 adults have died of malnutrition-related issues since the ministry started counting such deaths in late June, it said.
Ninety-three children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war in Gaza began, the ministry said. Israel's government has denied that people are starving to death in Gaza.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war, and another 251 were abducted. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead, is part of the Hamas government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable casualty count. Israel has disputed the figures but hasn't provided its own.
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