The family of Israeli hostage Evyatar David held by Hamas in Gaza has accused the group of deliberately starving him as part of a “propaganda campaign”.
“He is being starved purely to serve Hamas’s propaganda,” the family said on Saturday, a day after Hamas released a video showing an emaciated David in a narrow concrete tunnel.
David, 24, has been in captivity since his seizure by Hamas at a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
“We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton, buried alive,” the family statement added.
The hostage’s family also urged the Israeli government and the world community to do “everything possible to save Evyatar”.
In the video released by Hamas, Evyatar David is heard saying “I haven’t eaten for days… I barely got drinking water” and is seen digging what he says will be his own grave.
During its attack on Israel nearly two years ago, Hamas seized 251 hostages. David is one of 49 hostages who Israel says are still being held in Gaza. This includes 27 hostages who are believed to be dead.
Israel has been accused by aid agencies of pushing Gaza towards famine by weaponising food in its war against Hamas – an allegation it denies.
Israel has said there is “no starvation” and it is not imposing restrictions on aid entering Gaza – claims rejected by its close allies in Europe, the UN and other agencies active in the Strip.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was “continuing the series of actions aimed at improving the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”.
It said that 90 aid packages containing food for residents in southern and northern Gaza had been airdropped in the past few hours as part of co-operation between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said seven more people, including a child, died of malnutrition in the territory on Saturday.
The health ministry said the total number of malnutrition deaths since the start of the war has reached 169, including 93 children.
Also on Saturday in Gaza, the health ministry said at least 83 had been killed and 1,079 injured as a result of Israel’s military offensive in the past 24 hours.
Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat told the BBC it had received the bodies of three people killed by Israeli forces near an aid distribution point on Salah al-Din street, south of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza, run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The hospital said at least 36 people were injured.
The IDF said its troops “fired warning shots” hundreds of metres away from the aid distribution site, and not during its operating hours, after a crowd did not comply with their calls not to advance towards them “in a manner that posed a threat”.
“The IDF is not aware of any casualties as a result of the warning shots, and the details of the incident are still being examined,” it said.
GHF said there was “nothing at or near our sites today”.
International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, making it difficult to verify claims.
Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the group to release its remaining Israeli hostages.
The blockade was partially eased after 11 weeks amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, but shortages of food, medicine and fuel remain, aid agencies have said.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed.
The Hamas-run health authorities say 60,430 people have been killed as a result of the Israeli military campaign.