(Jerusalem) Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, asked on Sunday the aid of the Red Cross International Committee (ICRC) to provide “food” and “medical treatment” to Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, prey to a humanitarian disaster, after the Hamas of video of emaciated captives.
The publication since Thursday by the Palestinian Islamist movement and its ally of Islamic jihad of three videos showing two very weakened Israeli hostages, rekindled in Israel the debate on the need to arrive at an agreement as quickly as possible to release these captives, removed during the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel of October 7, 2023.
In the Palestinian territory, devastated by almost 22 months of war launched by this attack and threatened with “generalized famine” according to the UN, the civil defense reported 26 people killed during the day by Israeli fire or bombardments. Nine of them expected aid in the south near a center of the GHF, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supported by Israel and the United States.
Mr. Netanyahu “spoke with the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in our region”, and “requested his involvement to provide food for our hostages and provide them with immediate medical treatment,” said his office.
On X, this delegation expressed its “dismay” after the recent videos, claiming that this “disastrous situation must stop”. The ICRC declined any other immediate comment.
Mr. Netanyahu, under high pressure in Israel to obtain the return of the hostages, had previously expressed, via his services, his “deep dismay in the face of disseminated recordings”, and assured of the continuation of “efforts to bring all our hostages”.
“Hamas cynicism”
The evening before, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages of hostages, testifying to emotion in the country.
Photo Jack Guez, agency France-Presse
Tens of thousands of people gathered on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv
On the images, the two captives, Rom Breslevski and Evyatar David, appeared very weakened and weight loss, in a staging aimed at making the parallel with the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The sequence showing Evyatar David seeming to dig his own grave, shovel in hand, in a narrow tunnel where he is detained has particularly shocked.
Mr. Netanyahu, according to his office, had “a long conversation” on Saturday with their families. “The cruelty of Hamas has no limit,” he said, accusing Hamas again “of also deliberately starving the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, preventing them from receiving aid”.
PHOTO GIL COHEN-MAGEN, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu
The head of diplomacy of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, denounced “appalling images”, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron castigated an “abject cruelty” of Hamas.
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also said “horrified”, while calling Israel to continue the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and not to “respond to Hamas cynicism”.
Gravats expanses
Israel, who has been begging for the more than two million Palestinians from Gaza since the start of the war, raised the total humanitarian blockade in early May which he imposed in early March, but only authorizes the entrance to quantities of limited aid, deemed insufficient by the UN.
In the south near the center of the GFH, “the soldiers opened fire on people. I was there, no one was a threat, “said a witness, Jabr Al-Sha’er, 31, interviewed on the phone by AFP.
Photo Eyad Baba, Agency France-Presse
Palestinians leave a food distribution point managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation group (GHF), supported by the United States and Israel, with wooden bags and pallets, near the Netsarim corridor, in the center of the Gaza Strip, on August 3, 2025.
The Israeli army said they did not know “victims following shots” in the area.
She also indicated “examining” accusations of the Palestinian Red Red Red who said that one of her employees had been killed during the night in an Israeli strike that targeted the siege of the organization in Khan Younès (South).
Of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 49 remain retained in Gaza-of which 27 declared dead by the Israeli army-after two truces having allowed the release of others.
The attack resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official data.
Israeli reprisals have left at least 60,839 dead in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
An AFP journalist, embarked on Saturday on a French army plane performing aid tear on Gaza, could see the extent of destruction in the north of the Palestinian territory, around the port.
If it was not allowed to film Gaza, she was able to observe that certain districts were shaved by the bombing, transformed into rubble. Other districts are still standing, but dotted with impact areas.