A father's agony over video of his emaciated son, a hostage in Gaza, adds pressure for a ceasefire

JERUSALEM (AP) — Ofir Braslavski watched as his emaciated son, Rom, writhed in anguish 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.

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.

The footage of the Israeli hostages has stirred condemnation. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “very shocked” by the videos and “this unacceptable violation of human dignity,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

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.

Netanyahu said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages and met with the Red Cross to ask that it bring hostages food and medicine — access that the organization says has never been granted by Hamas.

“When I see these, I understand exactly what Hamas wants,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. “They do not want a deal. They want to break us using these videos of horror.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “appalled by the harrowing videos” and called for access to the hostages.

Hamas said it is ready to respond “positively” to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors for aid deliveries are opened in a “regular and permanent manner” in Gaza. It denied starving the hostages, saying they suffer from the same hunger as ordinary Palestinians.

Braslavski said that in the video of his son, the captors appear to be well-fed. “This hunger is on purpose, you can see that,” he said. “It's not because we're not letting aid go in.”

Israel has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the hostages, which will take place on Tuesday. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he will travel to New York for the meeting.

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.

Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that five more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours. A total of 87 adults have died of malnutrition-related issues since the ministry started counting such deaths in late June, it said.

Ninety-three children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war in Gaza began, the ministry said. Israel's government has denied that people are starving to death in Gaza.

About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war, and another 251 were abducted. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead, is part of the Hamas government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable casualty count. Israel has disputed the figures but hasn’t provided its own.

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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

This screengrab from an undated video, released on July 31, 2025, by the Islamic Jihad militant group, shows Israeli hostage Rom Braslavsky while being filmed by his captors at an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip. Braslavsky was abducted during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Bottom left reads in Arabic "Al-Quds Brigades, war media."(Islamic Jihad via AP)

This image from an undated video released on August 1, 2025, 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 October 7, 2023. Top left reads in Arabic " The military media - Hamas." (Hamas via AP)

Ofir Braslavski shows a video from militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, published last week of his son gaunt and emaciated in captivity in Gaza, in Almon, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Monday, Aug. 04, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Ofir Braslavski, whose son Rom was abducted by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, poses for a portrait in Almon an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Monday, Aug. 04, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Ofir Braslavski, whose son Rom was abducted by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, poses for a portrait in Almon an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Monday, Aug. 04, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Families of hostages protest, demanding the release from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, at the plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Conservative Party, which governed the country from 2010 until it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat two years ago, was plunged into fresh turmoil Thursday after its leader sacked the man widely seen as her greatest rival for apparently plotting to defect from the party.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a video and statement on X that she sacked the party's justice spokesperson Robert Jenrick due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" in a way that was “designed to be as damaging as possible” to the party. Badenoch also ejected Jenrick from the party's ranks in Parliament and suspended his party membership.

“The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I,” she said. “They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in this government. I will not repeat those mistakes.”

Though Badenoch did not specify which party Jenrick was planning to switch to, Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, said he had “of course” had conversations with him.

In the past 12 months, the Conservatives have suffered a string of defections to Reform UK, including some former Cabinet ministers.

Farage said in a press briefing in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, that coincided with Badenoch's statement that, “hand on heart,” he wasn't about to present Jenrick as the latest Conservative to defect to Reform, an upstart, anti-immigration party.

“I’ll give him a ring this afternoon,” he said. “I might even buy him a pint, you never know.”

The Conservatives are fighting not just the Labour government to their left, but Reform UK to the right.

Reform, which only has a handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons, is tipped to make a major breakthrough in an array of elections this May, including those to the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, at the expense of both the Conservatives and Labour.

Jenrick, who continued to attract speculation about leadership ambitions despite being beaten in 2024, has appeared more open than Badenoch to the prospect of some sort of deal between the Conservatives and Reform to unite the right in the run-up to next general election, which has to take place by 2029.

Jenrick has yet to respond to the news of his sacking.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose favorability ratings have fallen sharply since the general election following a series of missteps, questioned why it took Badenoch “so long” to sack Jenrick given all the speculation that he was looking to either challenge her or to defect to Reform.

Badenoch, a small-state, low-tax advocate, has shifted the Conservatives to the right, announcing policies similar to those of U.S. President Donald Trump, including a promise to deport 150,000 unauthorized immigrants a year.

Her poor poll ratings and lackluster performance in Parliament had stirred speculation that she could be ousted long before the next election.

However, she has been making a better impression in Parliament in recent weeks, particularly during her weekly questioning of Starmer, in a way that appears to have cemented her position as leader.

The party is no stranger to turmoil, having gone through six leaders in the space of 10 years, five of them serving as prime minister. Widespread anger at the way the Conservatives were governing Britain led to their defeat at the general election in July 2024, when they lost around two-thirds of their lawmakers, their worst performance since the modern party was created nearly 200 years ago.

Robert Jenrick speaking at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Robert Jenrick with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage addresses protesters outside the Iranian embassy, in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Kemi Badenoch with Robert Jenrick before being announced as the new Conservative Party leader following the vote by party members at 8 Northumberland Avenue in central London, Nov. 3, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)