The UN Security Council held a special session on Tuesday to discuss the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza at the demand of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

Ilay David, the brother of hostage Evyatar David, who was featured in a psychological terrorism video Hamas recently published, spoke via teleconference at the beginning of the session.

“Just this past weekend, we received a new video from hell,” he said. “We were reminded how cruel and inhumane Hamas and its sick partners are. My brother is a living skeleton with barely the strength to move or speak. His voice is barely recognizable.”

“In that video, my little brother is forced to speak to the world and then actively begins to dig his own grave inside the filthy, dark tunnel in Gaza.”

“My mother and I couldn’t summon the strength to watch it. We knew if we did, we wouldn’t be able to function. My father and sister chose to watch it, trying to feel him somehow—and now they’re haunted by the images. My father cannot sleep and my mother hasn’t stopped crying. What would you do if it were your son, your brother, or your father?”

“In the latest video, another chilling detail emerged: you can see the fat hand of a terrorist entering the frame—the hand of his captor. It’s visibly thicker than my brother’s leg. Hamas showed what we’ve known for months: the terrorists have plenty of food. The only ones starving are my brother and the other hostages.”

“From testimonies, we know the terrorists are in the next room. They are choosing to starve them as part of a sick campaign, using hunger as a weapon of war. This is a humanitarian crisis—yet no one here, or in other UN bodies, is talking about it. Aid flows into Gaza, but the hostages are denied even the most basic food. They haven’t received a single crumb.”

“The very soul of humanity is being scarred by Hamas’s barbaric actions. We, Evyatar’s family, refuse to give up hope. We are weeping and suffering, but we are also fighting.”

“Everyone bears responsibility—the world’s leaders, every member of this council, and the international community. Your silence in the face of this monstrous cruelty is complicity. I beg you: don’t let them die,” Ilay concluded.

Despite the searing images and Ilay’s heartbreaking words, the members of the council, albeit expressing token acknowledgement of the brutal treatment of the hostages, continued to blame Israel with false claims of “starvation” and “genocide” and repeat demands for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Only the US expressed words of support for Israel and put the blame for the situation where it belongs – on Hamas.

“The United States calls upon all countries to join together and say with one clear voice that Hamas must immediately surrender, release all the hostages, both those living and those who have already been murdered at the hands of Hamas, and allow this war to end,” said US representative to the UN Dorothy Shea.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)