Hamas has released disturbing footage showing Israeli hostage Evyatar David, abducted during the October 7 massacre, shirtless, severely emaciated, and struggling to stand inside a dark underground tunnel — the clearest visual evidence yet of the inhuman conditions in which Israeli hostages are being held in Gaza.

The video marks the first direct glimpse into the suffering endured by those still in captivity — nearly ten months later. David appears skeletal, barely able to walk, his body a haunting image of deliberate deprivation and systematic starvation, which Israeli officials and released hostages have already described as a form of torture.

Evyatar David (screenshot from Hamas Video)

This video follows the release of additional footage of another hostage: German-Israeli Rom Braslavski. Held for 23 months by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, Braslavski is shown in an equally emaciated state — a chilling testimony to the inhumane treatment he continues to endure. According to Israeli sources, Braslavski has been tortured, violently abused, starved, and repeatedly denied medical care.

Rom Braslavski before captivity and today (foto via Twitter)

All this comes as humanitarian aid into Gaza reaches record levels, facilitated by Israel, Egypt, the U.S., and international agencies. Yet mounting evidence shows that Hamas withholds these supplies from the hostages it holds — weaponizing starvation as a tool of psychological warfare and slow execution.

Despite this, the plight of the hostages receives little to no attention in many international headlines — a striking contrast to the daily coverage of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

Nowhere is this imbalance more visible than in a new open letter signed by over 200 German celebrities, including actor Daniel Brühl, pop artist Shirin David, and television host Joko Winterscheidt. Addressed to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), the letter urges Germany to halt arms exports to Israel, calls for an immediate ceasefire, and demands unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.

“We, too, strongly condemn the horrific crimes of Hamas,” the letter reads. “But no crime justifies the brutal collective punishment of millions of innocent people.”

But conspicuously absent from the statement is any mention of Israeli hostages still held in Hamas captivity — some of whom, like Evyatar David, are now being starved in underground tunnels. Several hostages have already been declared dead, with reports attributing some of the deaths to starvation.

Critics argue that the letter reflects a growing trend among segments of Europe’s cultural elite: condemning Israel in unqualified terms while ignoring or minimizing Hamas’s ongoing war crimes, including the use of civilians as human shields and the torture and murder of hostages.

Despite invoking humanitarian values, the letter’s total silence on the suffering of Israeli hostages has drawn sharp backlash. Many pro-Israel voices accuse the signatories of moral selectivity, questioning how compassion can be invoked for Gaza while turning a blind eye to those being starved to death in Hamas captivity.

The growing disparity in moral outrage — where the suffering of hostages like David and Braslavski is buried beneath headlines — raises a difficult question: how much longer will the world stay silent as human beings are starved to death in terrorist captivity?