This image from an undated video released on Aug. 1 by the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas shows Israeli hostage Evyatar David marking a food log on a calendar inside the Gaza tunnel where he is being held. David was abducted during the Hamas attack on Oc. 7, 2023. (Hamas via AP)

JERUSALEM — Ofir Braslavski watched as his emaciated son, Rom, writhed in agony on a dirty mattress somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, in video footage released by Palestinian militants in recent days showing the agony of Israeli hostages.

“You see your child dying before your eyes, and you can’t do anything,” he told The Associated Press on Monday from his home. “It drives you crazy, it’s unbearable.”

New images of two skeletal hostages have horrified Israelis and added pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire with Hamas, even as his government considers another expansion of the war, which has already destroyed much of Gaza and pushed it toward famine.

In the video released by the Islamic Jihad militant group, Rom Braslavski says injuries in his foot prevent him from being able to stand. In another video, released by Hamas, Evyatar David says he is digging his own grave and speaks of days without food.

The Associated Press does not normally publish videos of hostages filmed under duress, but is publishing brief excerpts after receiving consent from their families.

The videos led tens of thousands of Israelis to take to the streets on Saturday night and demand a ceasefire deal, in one of the largest turnouts for the weekly protests in recent months.

‘Completely turned off’

Braslavski said Rom looks much worse than he did in a video released four months ago.

“There, he also looks terrible, but he had this hope in his eyes where he felt he was still going to get out and it would be OK,” Braslavski said. “Now, in the last video, he looks completely turned off, it’s as if he’s waiting for death. His eyes are turned off, he probably doesn’t want to endure this suffering anymore.”

Braslavski said his son, who was working as a security guard at a music festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war, is usually a strong, happy-go-lucky kid. The video released last week, in which his son sobs and begs for his life, is the first time he’s seen his son cry.

Netanyahu said Monday that he will convene the Cabinet this week to discuss how Israel can meet the three goals he has set for the war: defeating Hamas, returning the hostages and ensuring Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.

But his plans to potentially increase military operations are meeting staunch opposition from within Israel, including letters of protest from leading security leaders and cultural figures.

Warnings of famine

The videos were released as international experts say a “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in the coastal territory, where Israel’s offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food and other humanitarian aid. Images of starving Palestinians have drawn international condemnation of Israel’s conduct.

Families of the hostages fear that the lack of food threatens the remaining hostages, too. Fewer than half of the 50 remaining hostages are believed to be alive, the rest either killed during the October 2023 attack or while in captivity.

Israel did not allow any food, medicine or other goods to enter Gaza from early March until mid-May, when it eased its blockade on the territory of some 2 million Palestinians.

The United Nations says nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since then, mostly by Israeli forces as crowds head toward aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.

___

A previous version of this story corrected the spelling to Braslavski.

___

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war