Gaza, Aug 2: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Thursday posted a video of an Israeli-German hostage – Rom Braslavski, who had been held captive in the Gaza Strip in October 2023, an attack after which war sparked in the territory.In the video, Braslavski, 21, can be seen identifying himself and pleading with the Israeli government to secure his release. He looks pale and thin, lying on the ground in Gaza and is seen watching news footage of the hunger crisis in Gaza.
This is not the first video of him released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They had released a previous video of him on April 16. In the video, he complained of an illness that made his entire body itch, and he had appealed to US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get him released.
Braslavski was a security agent at the Nova music festival when he was abducted. Before he was abducted, he managed to rescue several festival-goers, witnesses who escaped, recall.
The group is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union.
“They managed to break Rom. Even the strongest person has a breaking point,” his family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“Rom is an example of all the hostages. They must all be brought home now.”
According to the Israeli military, of the 251 people abducted from Israel, 49 are still held in Gaza, 27 of whom are dead.
The Israeli military only posts hostage videos if the hostage’s family permits.
“People are speaking a lot about what is happening in Gaza, about the hunger, and I ask all those who are speaking about hunger: Did you see our Rom? He doesn’t receive food, and he doesn’t receive medicine,” the family wrote in a statement issued by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“He is simply forgotten there. They managed to break Rom. Even the most resilient person has their breaking point,” the statement read.
Israel has been fighting Hamas in Gaza since the kidnappings, but a truce from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return of 33 hostages to Israel, eight of them dead, in exchange for the release of approximately 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli jails.