Desperate Hostage Father Slams Government: ‘My Son Is Dying’

The father of Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski issued a stark warning, saying he is prepared to take “extreme actions” if necessary to secure his son’s release.

“It can’t be that after we see him dying, my child tortured, we continue as if life goes on,” Ofir Braslavski told Channel 12 in interview this morning. “It’s inconceivable. I can’t understand it. I have nothing to lose.”

His comments come weeks after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released video footage of Rom Braslavski, visibly gaunt and in deteriorating health. At a Tel Aviv rally earlier this month, Ofir likened the images to “the horrors of the Holocaust, seeing him tortured, suffering.”

Braslavski is one of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza. Their families have mounted increasingly desperate appeals for a deal, staging near-daily protests demanding that the government accept a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the immediate release of at least 10 captives.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has signaled it will not accept the proposal currently on the table. Instead, Israel plans to press forward with a military offensive in Gaza City while seeking a broader agreement that would secure the return of all hostages and bring an end to the war.

For parents like Braslavski, time is running out. “I can’t be silent anymore,” he said. “Anything I can do, I will do. Even extreme things, if I must.”