Image source, Pa Media
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- Author, Jaroslav Lukiv
- Author's title, BBC News
The family of the Israeli hostage Evyatar David, retained by Hamas in Gaza, accused the group of deliberately depriving him as part of a “propaganda campaign.”
The family statement occurred one day after Hamas published a video that showed it demacrated in a narrow concrete tunnel.
David, 24, has been captive since Hamas captured him at a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
“We are forced to witness how our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, is deprived of deliberate food and cynically in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza: a living skeleton, buried alive,” added the family statement.
The hostage family also urged the Israeli government and the international community to do everything possible to save Evjatar.
In the video published by Hamas, David is heard to avoid saying: “I have not eaten in days … I barely have drinking water” and he is seen digging what, according to him, will be his own grave.
During his attack against Israel almost two years ago, Hamas captured 251 hostages. David is one of the 49 hostages that, according to Israel, are still held in Gaza. This figure includes 27 hostages that are believed to be dead.
Israel has been accused of humanitarian aid agencies to push Gaza towards the famine by using food as a weapon in his war against Hamas, an accusation that Israel denies.
Israel has affirmed that “there is no famine” and that it is not imposing restrictions on the aid that enters into Gaza, statements rejected by its close allies in Europe, the UN and other active agencies in the strip.
On Saturday, the Israeli army stated that “they continue with a series of measures to improve the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip.”
They added that in the last hours, 90 food packages with food for residents of the South and Northern Gaza had been launched from the air, as part of the cooperation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Ministry of Health, led by Hamas, reported that seven more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the territory on Saturday.
The Ministry of Health indicated that the total number of deaths from malnutrition from the beginning of the war amounts to 169, including 93 children.
Image source, Reuters
Also on Saturday in Gaza, the Ministry of Health reported that at least 83 people died and 1,079 were injured as a result of the Israeli military offensive in the last 24 hours.
The Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat informed the BBC that he received the bodies of three people killed by the Israeli forces near a distribution point of aid on Saladino Street, in the center of Gaza, managed by the Humanitarian Foundation of Gaza (FGH), backed by the United States and Israel. The hospital indicated that at least 36 people were injured.
The Israeli army said that his troops “fired warning shots” hundreds of meters from the aid distribution point, and not during their attention schedule, after a crowd did not attend to his calls not to move towards them “in a way that represented a threat.”
“The Armed Forces of Israel have no record of any victim as a result of the warning shots, and the details of the incident are still being investigated,” he said.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that “there was nothing at our distribution points or close to them today.” Israel prevents international journalists, including BBC, to enter Gaza independently, which hinders the verification of their statements.
Image source, Getty Images
Israel imposed a total blockade of the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza in early March and resumed his military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, breaking a high fire of two months. He said he wanted to press the group to release the remaining Israeli hostages.
The blockade was partially relieved after 11 weeks amid warnings of international experts about an imminent famine, but the shortage of food, medicines and fuel persists, as reported by help agencies.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people died.
Health authorities, controlled by Hamas, claim that 60,430 people have died as a result of the Israeli military campaign.
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