The Consulate General of Israel in New York launched a digital billboard campaign advertisement in Times Square in Midtown Manhattan on Monday to raise awareness of Israeli hostage Evyatar David and to underscore “the urgency of ensuring all hostages are released now.”
The move comes days after the Hamas terror group in Gaza released a propaganda video of David, 24, appearing emaciated.
“This is what real hunger looks like. This is what truth looks like,” said Ofir Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York. “Evyatar David is being starved by a Nazi terrorist organization that dares, with the backing of parts of the media, to spread the blood libel that Israel is starving the people of Gaza.”
“We will continue to expose, everywhere and at all times, the lies of these vile terrorists and their collaborators,” he wrote on the consulate’s official Instagram account.
David’s family issued a public statement on Saturday after approving the publication of the full video.
“Hamas is using our son as a live experiment in a vile hunger campaign,” the family’s statement read. “The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen.”
David was abducted from the Supernova music festival during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.