By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A growing willingness by among Israeli news media to critically explore the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has all but evaporated in recent weeks after militant group Hamas released videos of two emaciated Israeli hostages.

In late July, as images of starving Gazans stirred international outcry, some Israeli press and broadcasters began to carry reports on the worsening conditions there, urging a more robust aid response.

Yonit Levi, the main news anchor of Channel 12, branded the humanitarian crisis in Gaza a "moral failure" live on air, and the heads of some universities and the national Holocaust memorialappealed to the government to help hungry Gazans.

Israeli media has largely focused during 22 months of war on the trauma and impact on Israelis of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack, in which, according to Israeli tallies, some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. Coverage has concentrated on the fate of the hostages and the casualties suffered by the Israeli army.

Some Israelis welcomed Levi's comment and the spate of reports discussing conditions in Gaza as evidence of a readiness to examine the impact of the war on Palestinian civilians.

But the mood in Israel hardened dramatically when, on July 31, Hamas released a video of the skeletal 21-year-old Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, weeping and in pain. It was followed three days later by a video of Evyatar David, 24, who said he was being forced to dig his own grave.

The videos - which one Palestinian source said were designed to show the terrible impact of restricted aid flows in Gaza - backfired, shutting down the growing sympathy in Israel towards civilians there.

Amid international........

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