Some 10,000 folks on Saturday night rallied at Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv to demand the discharge of the captives, after terror teams in Gaza revealed footage exhibiting hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski severely emaciated and David being pressured to dig what he stated he fears might be his personal grave in a Gaza tunnel.
Hundreds extra demonstrated a block away exterior the Start Highway entrance to the IDF’s headquarters, and in different rallies throughout the nation, marking among the highest turnouts on the demonstrations in current weeks.
Talking in English at Hostages Sq., David’s older brother, Ilay, stated Hamas was utilizing the captives as “dwell starvation experiments,” and demanded that Evyatar and the opposite hostages obtain humanitarian support getting into the Gaza Strip to alleviate the humanitarian disaster there.
“I stand earlier than you at this time as a brother and a son,” stated Ilay, hours after the David household accredited for publication the Hamas video that confirmed Evyatar digging what he says he fears is his personal grave in an underground tunnel. “A brother and a son whose coronary heart is being torn aside, watching helplessly, as my youthful brother, Evyatar David, and his fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal slip away. They’re on absolutely the brink of dying.”
Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar David, converse at Hostages Sq., Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Paulina Patiner / Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)
“Of their present unimaginable situation, they might have solely days left to dwell,” stated Ilay.
“Hamas is utilizing Evyatar in one of the vital horrific and calculated campaigns possible,” he continued. “They’re ravenous him intentionally, systematically utilizing his agonizing struggling as a twisted software for his or her wicked propaganda.”
Anti-government, pro-hostage deal protesters rally round a fireplace in entrance of the Start Highway entrance to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)
“This isn’t only a violation of worldwide regulation — it’s an assault on each shred of fundamental human decency,” stated Ilay. “An act so vile it scars the very soul of humanity.”
He urged Israel’s authorities and world leaders, particularly US President Donald Trump, to carry concerning the hostages’ launch “by any means needed.”
“To stay silent now’s to be complicit of their gradual agonizing dying,” he stated.
Yeela, Evyatar’s youthful sister, addressed her brother in Hebrew: “Mother is shattered and never functioning, Dad hears your voice at evening and doesn’t shut his eyes, however Ilay and I are taking good care of them.”
“We’re so ready to your return and to recuperate along with you,” she stated.
Yeela David, left, and Ilay David, respectively the sister and brother of hostage Evyatar David, converse at Hostages Sq., Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Lior Rothstein/Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)
Former hostage Omer Wenkert, who was held for some 250 days with David and Gilboa-Dalal, stated he was bowled over at media descriptions of the footage of David as a “signal of life.”
“Actually? How dare we name this factor an indication of life?” stated Wenkert, including that he “broke down crying” upon seeing the video.
“If there are hostages in Gaza I can simply by no means get out of there,” he stated. “I’m captive in my very own land.”
Ofer Braslavski, the daddy of hostage Rom Braslavski, speaks at Hostages Sq., August 2, 2025. (Paulina Patiner / Hostages Households Discussion board)
Braslavski’s father, Ofer, accused the federal government of abandoning his son, saying he didn’t acknowledge him within the footage launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday.
“Rom is a hero, and our nation has deserted him for 666 days now. Two days in the past, all of us noticed the worth of abandonment,” he stated, referring to the video. “I noticed my son and didn’t acknowledge him. My Rom is hungry for bread, thirsty for water, bodily damaged and mentally shattered. My youngster is dying.”
Ram Braslavski, in a nonetheless from a propaganda video revealed by Islamic Jihad on July 31, 2025 and cleared for publication by his mom on August 1, 2025.
He demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu search a complete deal to finish the battle and launch all of the hostages.
“Sufficient! The partial deal technique has failed,” he stated, referring to the short-term truce agreements through which some captives have been freed. “Whilst you and your authorities have procrastinated, my son and the remainder of the hostages are paying the worth.”
After the Hostages Sq. rally, hostage households and their supporters recited conventional Jewish songs of mourning and browse the biblical Scroll of Lamentations, in accordance with the customs of the day-long Tisha B’Av starting Saturday night to commemorate the destruction of the 2 historic Jewish temples. An everyday anti-government protest at Hostages Sq. was canceled because of the quick.
‘Cease every little thing’
Earlier Saturday, US particular envoy Steve Witkoff visited hostage households on the sq. and informed them that Washington has despaired of partial hostage offers and is now searching for a complete settlement to finish the battle and launch all of the hostages.
Hostage households have lengthy assailed Netanyahu for failing to pursue such a deal, although a senior Israeli official informed reporters on Thursday that “there might be no extra partial hostage offers.”
US particular envoy Steve Witkoff meets with hostages’ households at Hostages Sq., in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)
Talking on the Start Highway protest Saturday evening, Yehuda Cohen, father of captive soldier Nimrod Cohen, stated Israel’s obvious about-face was the results of rising European strain on Netanyahu, together with a wave of nations saying they might acknowledge a Palestinian state.
“Solely strain on Netanyahu, from inside and out of doors, will carry us to the top [of the war] and the discharge of all [the hostages],” stated Cohen. “They’re dying of abuse and hunger. Each doable strain have to be exerted on Netanyahu to finish the battle and produce a few deal.”
Negotiations for a ceasefire-hostage deal have all however stalled for over per week after Israel and the US withdrew their negotiators from Doha.
Talking at a Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board rally on the Shaar HaNegev Junction within the south, Gadi Mozes, who was launched in February as a part of the final ceasefire-hostage deal, slammed the federal government over the stalled negotiations and what he referred to as “ego struggles and petty politics.”
He referred to as on the general public to “cease every little thing, reject this life being normalized, reject the lack of values and reject the battle.”
Former hostage Gadi Mozes speaks at a rally in help of the remaining hostages, on the Shaar HaNegev Junction in southern Israel, August 2, 2025. (Tanya Zion-Waldoks/Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)
Terror teams within the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, together with 49 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They embrace the our bodies of at the least 28 confirmed useless by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave considerations for the well-being of two others, Israeli officers have stated.
Hamas can also be holding the physique of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014. Hamas launched 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, 5 troopers, and 5 Thai nationals — and the our bodies of eight slain Israeli captives throughout a ceasefire between January and March, and one extra hostage, a twin American-Israeli citizen, in Could as a “gesture” to america.
The fear group freed 105 civilians throughout a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and 4 hostages have been launched earlier than that within the early weeks of the battle. In trade, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, safety prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained in the course of the battle. Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the our bodies of 49 have additionally been recovered, together with three mistakenly killed by the Israeli army as they tried to flee their captors, and the physique of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
