Some 10,000 people on Saturday evening rallied at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to demand the release of the captives, after terror groups in Gaza published footage showing hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski severely emaciated and David being forced to dig what he said he fears will be his own grave in a Gaza tunnel.

Thousands more demonstrated a block away outside the Begin Road entrance to the IDF’s headquarters, and in other rallies across the country, marking some of the highest turnouts at the demonstrations in recent weeks.

Speaking in English at Hostages Square, David’s older brother, Ilay, said Hamas was using the captives as “live hunger experiments,” and demanded that Evyatar and the other hostages receive humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there.

“I stand before you today as a brother and a son,” said Ilay, hours after the David family approved for publication the Hamas video that showed Evyatar digging what he says he fears is his own grave in an underground tunnel. “A brother and a son whose heart is being torn apart, watching helplessly, as my younger brother, Evyatar David, and his fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal slip away. They are on the absolute brink of death.”

“In their current unimaginable condition, they may have only days left to live,” said Ilay.

“Hamas is using Evyatar in one of the most horrific and calculated campaigns imaginable,” he continued. “They are starving him deliberately, systematically using his agonizing suffering as a twisted tool for their depraved propaganda.”

“This is not just a violation of international law — it is an assault on every shred of basic human decency,” said Ilay. “An act so vile it scars the very soul of........

© The Times of Israel