Aug. 5 (UPI) — A special session of the U.N. Security Council was set to convene Tuesday morning at the request of Israel to discuss the dozens of its citizens being held in Gaza after Hamas released footage of starving hostages over the weekend.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called for an urgent meeting of the 15-member council after shocking videos of hostages Evyatar David, 24, and Rom Braslavski, 21, in which they appear severely emaciated, were circulated by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
“The international community must make it not worthwhile for the terrorists. The world must put an end to the phenomenon of kidnapping civilians. It must be front and center on the world stage,” he said at a news conference Monday.
He thanked the United States and Panama for seconding his call for the special session meeting in New York.
The Israeli consulate in New York upped the pressure by uploading the video of David for all to see on a giant screen in Times Square in midtown Manhattan.
“Hamas kidnapped him. Hamas tortures him. Hamas is starving him. This is what real hunger looks like. This is what truth looks like. Evyatar David is being starved by a Nazi terrorist organization that dares, with the backing of parts of the media, to spread the blood libel that Israel is starving the people of Gaza,” Consul General Ofir Akunis said in a post on X.
“We will continue to expose, everywhere and at all times, the lies of these vile terrorists and their collaborators. Now his face is on Times Square — because the world can’t look away anymore.”
Hamas insisted that the same provisions were provided to the hostages as those available to its members and ordinary people in Gaza and that it did not purposely starve them, stressing that the enclave was in the depths of the hunger crisis.
World leaders joined in the condemnation of the images of the hostages released after Hamas said it would not lay down its arms until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy led the criticism, calling what he described as hostages being paraded for propaganda “sickening” and demanding their release without conditions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Hamas stood for “abject cruelty,” while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was left shocked by the images and reiterated that no cease-fire could be reached without the hostages’ release.
Calling the videos “appalling,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a post on X that the images provided “stark evidence of the life-threatening conditions in which the hostages are being held,” and demanded it be allowed to visit them.
“We know families watching these videos are horrified and heartbroken by the conditions they see their loved ones held in. We reiterate that all hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally. This dire situation must come to an end now.”
Israel said David and Braslavski are among 22 hostages who remain alive out of 49 still being held captive.
In its latest update posted to social media Tuesday morning, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the number of malnutrition deaths recorded by hospitals in the Palestinian enclave in the past 24 hours had risen to 188 martyrs, including 94 children.