Families of captives lead protest in Tel Aviv
The Times of Israel is reporting that hundreds of people in Tel Aviv are taking part in a protest to force the government to agree to a deal that returns the captives.
The report said family members of captives have set up a barbed wire camp to draw attention to the plight of their relatives after Hamas released videos in recent days of two captives, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski.
“We saw the difficult videos of Rom and Evyatar from captivity,” the media outlet quoted Einav Zangauker, mother of captive Matan Zangauker, as saying.
“Jews are becoming skin and bones because of political survival,” she said, with the report adding that she was referring to accusations that Netanyahu is prolonging the war on Gaza to secure his position of power.
“If we don’t free everyone now, they will not survive for much longer,” Zangauker said.
Qassam Brigades releases extended footage of Israeli captive Evyatar David
Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has released a longer video of Israeli captive Evyatar David, following a 40-second clip shared yesterday.
David, who was taken from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, appears emaciated in a narrow tunnel. In the four-minute video, subtitled in Arabic and English, he describes severe deprivation, saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to eat today … I haven’t eaten in days … I’ve barely got drinking water.” He gives the date as July 27.
At one point, David shows a calendar that he says tracks his July food intake – marking some days with lentils or beans and others with nothing.
Near the end, he holds a shovel and says: “What I’m doing now is digging my own grave … This is the grave where I think I’m going to be buried.”
The video concludes with text over the screen: “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive.”
David’s family had slammed the earlier footage released by Hamas as a “disgusting hunger campaign”.
