Evyatar’s family David condemns Hamas’ video of Israeli hostage emacidity

The Israeli hostage family Evyatar David held by Hamas in Gaza accused the group of having deliberately hungry for a “propaganda campaign”.

“It is only hungry to serve Hamas propaganda,” the family said on Saturday, one day after Hamas published a video showing a David emaciated in a narrow concrete tunnel.

David, 24, has been in captivity since his seizure by Hamas during a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“We are forced to attend our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically hungry in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton, buried alive,” added the family declaration.

The hostage family has also urged the Israeli government and the world community to do “everything that is possible to save Evyatar”.

In the video published by Hamas, Evyatar David is heard saying “I haven’t eaten for days … I have barely drinking water” and we saw what he says will be his own grave.

During its attack on Israel almost two years ago, Hamas seized 251 hostages. David is one of the 49 hostages which, according to Israel, are always detained in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages that would be dead.

Israel was accused by help agencies of having pushed Gaza towards famine by arising food in her war against Hamas – an allegation she denies.

Israel said that there was “no famine” and that it does not impose restrictions on aid in Gaza – complaints rejected by its relatives in Europe, the UN and other agencies active in the band.

On Saturday, Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) said that it “continued the series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”.

He said 90 aid packages containing food for residents in the south and northern Gaza had been issued by the last hours as part of cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Ministry of Health managed by Hamas said that seven other people, including a child, died of malnutrition on the territory on Saturday.

The Ministry of Health said that the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of the war had reached 169, including 93 children.

Also on Saturday in Gaza, the Ministry of Health said that at least 83 had been killed and 1,079 injured following the military offensive of Israel in recent 24 hours.

Nuseirat’s Al-Awda Hospital told the BBC that he had received the bodies of three people killed by Israeli forces near an aid distribution on Street Al-Din, south of the Wadi Gaza region in the Gaza center, led by the United States and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supported by the United States and Israeli (GHF). The hospital said that at least 36 people were injured.

The FDIs said that his troops “fired warning fire” hundreds of meters from the aid distribution site, not during his operation hours, after a crowd did not conform to their calls not to move towards them “in a way that posed a threat”.

“The FDI is not aware of any victim following warning plans, and the details of the incident are still being examined,” he said.

GHF said that there was “nothing on or near our sites today”. He understood that the convoys of help from the UN / World (WFP) food program were in the incident area, which attracted large crowds that have invaded and removed trucks.

The BBC asked for comments from the WFP.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel to enter independently from Gaza, which makes it difficult to verify complaints.

Israel imposed a total blockade of assistance deliveries in Gaza in early March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, to collapse a two-month ceasefire. He said he wanted to put pressure on the group to release his remaining Israeli hostages.

The blockade was partially attenuated after 11 weeks in the midst of the warnings of an imminent famine of global experts, but shortages of food, drugs and fuel remain, the aid agencies said.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed.

The health authorities managed by Hamas say that 60,430 people were killed following the Israeli military campaign.