Dozens of protesters blocked traffic on Tel Aviv‘s Ayalon Highway on Sunday morning, calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The demonstration came after videos of two emaciated captives, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavsky, shocked Israelis and amplified calls for their release. The protesters, led by the Women’s Protest group and including relatives of freed hostages, carried banners reading “Abandonment of the hostages = destruction of the Third Temple” and “Everyone in a deal. Get out of Gaza.” Another sign read, in English, “Never again is now.”
The protesters chanted, “Why are they still in Gaza?” and “Bringing them back, everyone now.” Among the marchers were Shai Mozes, nephew of released hostage Gadi Mozes, and Meor Rosenberg, a relative of freed hostage Arbel Yehoud. The protest, which lasted about 20 minutes, took place on the morning of the Tisha B’Av fast day, which commemorates the ancient destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other Jewish historical tragedies.
The videos of David and Braslavsky, released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, respectively, showed the hostages in a state of severe emaciation. David’s video, in which his bones could be seen protruding through his skin and he was filmed digging his own grave, provoked outrage in Israel and beyond. According to reports, David has “only a few days left to live in his present state,” and his family has accused Hamas of using him as a “live experiment in human starvation.”
Tal Shoham, a freed captive who was held together with David, said in a video statement that he recognized where the footage of David was filmed and that he remembers his Hamas captors having ample food supplies for themselves there. Shoham added that when he was released from captivity during a ceasefire in February, David was suffering from scurvy. “This is a deliberate starvation by Hamas commanders that is only for propaganda in a really, really sadistic way,” he said, adding that David is in “under really extreme life-threatening danger right now.”
Freed hostage Ohad Ben-Ami wrote in a column for Ynet that the starvation Braslavsky and David are enduring was familiar to him. “When I returned from captivity, my body had only 3.5 percent body fat,” he wrote. “It was said to me that had I stayed there another two or three weeks, I wouldn’t have survived. Evyatar and Rom, according to the pictures, may be in this situation as well — and so the negotiations need to be quick, so we can save them.”
The protesters’ statement read, “This morning is the Ninth of Av, and the greatest destruction has only been getting deeper for 667 days.” They blamed the government for not doing more to free the captives. “It is impossible to breathe in the face of the pictures of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavsky, who have been abandoned thanks to this bad government,” the statement said. “Bring everyone back, the living and the dead, and end the war already.”
International reaction to the hostage videos has been muted thus far. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on X that “The images of Israeli hostages are appalling and expose the barbarity of Hamas.” She called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, an end to Hamas’ rule in Gaza, and large-scale humanitarian aid to reach those in need. US President Donald Trump reportedly saw the video of David, while US Sen. John Fetterman condemned the video, saying, “Hamas: send these poor souls home, disarm, and end this hell on earth in Gaza”.