Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, to intervene in providing urgent humanitarian assistance to Israeli hostages held in Gaza, following the release of disturbing videos showing emaciated captives.
The appeal was made during a phone conversation on Sunday with the ICRC’s regional coordinator, Julien Lerisson.
Netanyahu urged the agency to help ensure food and immediate medical care are delivered to the hostages, some of whom have now appeared in deteriorating physical condition.
“We are appalled by the harrowing videos,” the Red Cross said in a statement, renewing its demand for immediate access to the hostages. The organisation has repeatedly been denied entry to visit those held by Hamas.
In response, Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed it would grant access to the Red Cross only if humanitarian corridors for food and aid are opened across the entirety of the Gaza Strip.
The group denied deliberately starving hostages but said they receive no preferential treatment amid the broader humanitarian crisis and blockade in Gaza.
The latest developments come after three videos released in recent days by Hamas and Islamic Jihad showed hostages Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David visibly gaunt and weak.
In one video, David is seen digging what he says is his own grave, an image that has ignited a wave of fury and despair across Israel.
On Saturday, Netanyahu met with the families of the two hostages and described the footage as “profoundly shocking.” He assured them that efforts to secure the release of all captives are ongoing.
The images have renewed pressure on Netanyahu’s government to strike a truce deal, as tens of thousands rallied in Tel Aviv over the weekend demanding immediate action to bring the hostages home.
International condemnation followed swiftly. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas denounced the videos as evidence of Hamas’s “barbarity” and called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of all hostages.
She also urged that “large-scale humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach civilians in need,” while repeating calls for Hamas to disarm and relinquish control over Gaza, demands that were also supported last week by key mediators Qatar and Egypt.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. According to the UN, famine is imminent, and aid deliveries are routinely hampered by security concerns, logistical chaos and Israeli restrictions.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF, backed by the US and Israel, has tried to facilitate food distribution, but even those efforts have turned deadly.
On Sunday, nine Palestinians were reportedly shot and killed while waiting at a GHF aid point near Rafah.
“The soldiers opened fire on people. I was there, no one posed a threat,” a witness, Jabr al-Shaer, told reporters. There has been no comment from the Israeli military.
Elsewhere in Gaza, five more civilians were killed at another aid distribution site, and several others died in separate airstrikes, according to civil defence sources. The tolls, however, could not be independently verified due to access restrictions.
Braslavski and David are among 49 known hostages still held in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, in which 1,219 people were killed, most of them civilians. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, launched in response, has since claimed over 60,430 lives, also predominantly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.
These figures are widely accepted by the UN, though they remain difficult to independently confirm.
The United Nations Security Council is expected to convene an emergency session on Tuesday to address the worsening hostage crisis.
