Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday released a video of Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, showing the 21-year-old in a state of severe physical and emotional distress — gaunt, crying, and barely recognizable. The terror group claimed the footage was filmed days before they “lost contact” with his captors earlier this month.

Braslavski was abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’s brutal October 7 assault. For months, his family clung to hope in silence. The last confirmed proof of life came in April, 588 days after his abduction. Now, with this new footage surfacing under grim circumstances, the anguish has boiled over.

“They broke my child,” his mother, Tami Braslavski, cried in an emotional interview with Ynet. “I want him home — now!”

Visibly shattered, she demanded an immediate meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Katz, and the IDF Chief of Staff.

“They haven’t even picked up the phone to me,” she said. “I demand a meeting now — not tomorrow, not next week — now.”

In the brief but devastating footage, Rom appears emaciated, his body frail and trembling. What haunts his mother most are the tears.

“My son doesn’t cry,” she said. “I know how he was beaten. If he is crying, it’s because he was tortured. Look at him — he’s just skin and bones. You can see every bone in his body.”

Tami Braslavski’s fury wasn’t directed only at the Israeli leadership. She turned her heartbreak into a fiery appeal to the international community, condemning what she called a dangerous imbalance in global empathy.

“They should not cry for the children of Gaza,” she said bluntly. “They should have compassion for the hostages. My little boy is crying. What is this? What is this suffering?”

“He is my child,” she said. “And I will not be silent.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)