Global Outcry Over Hamas Hostage Video: Leaders Condemn Appalling Cruelty 

In a world already scarred by nearly two years of unrelenting conflict, the release of a chilling video by Hamas depicting Israeli hostage Evyatar David emaciated, frail, and forced to dig his own grave has reignited a wave of horror and condemnation. The 24 year old, kidnapped during the October 7, 2023, attacks and held captive for over 665 days, appears as a shadow of himself, his voice a whisper of despair amid accusations of deliberate starvation. As families cling to fading hope and protests swell in Tel Aviv, world leaders have broken their silence, decrying the boundless inhumanity that reduces a young man to a living skeleton buried alive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed profound shock at the footage, which also includes fellow hostage Rom Braslavski. The cruelty of Hamas has no boundaries, he declared, vowing to pursue every avenue to free the remaining 50 hostages, some 20 of whom are believed alive but enduring unimaginable torment.

Netanyahu also turned to the Red Cross to take immediate action to provide food and medical care to Israeli hostages held in Gaza during a conversation with Julien Lerisson, head of the Red Cross delegation in the region.

According to his office, Netanyahu accuses Hamas of spreading a lie of starvation to the world, while the real starvation is being inflicted on the hostages, who are suffering brutal physical and psychological abuse.

“The world cannot remain indifferent in the face of images that recall Nazi crimes,” he said.

David's family, shattered by the sight of their son once vibrant, now gaunt and broken accused Hamas of live hunger experiments, pleading for humanitarian aid and a deal to end the nightmare. He is a living skeleton buried alive, they lamented, fearing he has mere days left.

The videos release coincided with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Gaza aid sites, coming hot on the heels of global pleas for intervention into the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

Merz said, “Hamas is torturing hostages and using civilians as shields. Releasing hostages is a precondition for a ceasefire. Hamas must have no role in Gaza’s future. Israel must resist Hamas’ cynicism and continue humanitarian aid.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, viewing the abject cruelty, condemned Hamas' actions as demonstrating appalling cruelty and boundless inhumanity, a stark rebuke that points to the moral outrage rippling through Europe. EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas echoed this sentiment, calling the footage appalling and urging intensified pressure on Hamas to release all the remaining captives.

David Lammy, who, like Kallas, is not exactly a friend of Israel, agreed.

Yet, the responses, while poignant, reveal a world grappling with growing antismetiic and anti-Israel leanings; they cry for the Gazans but can't spare a second's thought for a living Holocaust-like hostage: Other world leaders remained silent on this video, and the New York Times, which just last week published a modern day blood-libel against Israel, couldn't be bothered to comment.

Former hostage Tal Shoham, who survived similar tunnels, revealed that his captors' comforts including air conditioning and stolen food while prisoners starved.

This evening, Hamas once presented schizoid messaging. Abu Obeida, spokesperson for Hamas' military wing, in an attempt to improve the organization’s image, announced, "The Al-Qassam Brigades are prepared to respond positively to any request from the Red Cross to deliver food and medicine to the enemy’s hostages." In the same breath, he said, "The prisoners will not receive any special privileges amid the crime of starvation and siege.”

Hamas, which are usually so good at spreading vicious lies to the world, failed miserably when they released videos of two hostage they have starved. Unfortunately though, all they need to do to get back into the world's "good books" is present a few more pictures of grossly disabled children, and blame it on Israel. The world has a short, short memory and usually drinks Hamas' kool-aid, whichever flavor they serve.

This is what Gazan news reporter Abu Ali said:

"Let me remind you that Hamas had already promised in the early stages of the war to deliver aid and medicine from the Red Cross to the hostages, but this was later found by IDF soldiers discarded in one of the hospitals.

Even in this latest statement, the spokesman for Hamas's military wing is lying , we all saw the muscular arm of the operative handing a can of fava beans to the starving Evyatar.

Even before the video, released hostages had testified that they were deliberately starved by Hamas, even as food was flowing abundantly into the Gaza Strip.

Lying is Hamas's default. They will do whatever they can to trap Israel and slightly improve the image they damaged themselves in the wake of yesterday’s video.

Don’t fall for Hamas’s spin."