Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday night released a propaganda video of Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski, whom the terrorist group has held in Gaza since the Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
PIJ claimed the video was recorded days before it supposedly lost contact with Braslavski’s captors last week, adding that his current condition is unknown.
Braslavski’s family did not authorize the release of the video, consenting instead to the distribution of a single still photograph.
“We are deeply shaken. People talk a lot about what is happening in Gaza—about hunger—and I want to ask everyone who spoke about hunger: Did you see our Rom?” the family said in a statement.
“He is not receiving food. He is not receiving medicine. He has simply been forgotten there,” the statement continued. “Six minutes of video—that’s all it took for Rom to break on camera. But Rom has been there for 664 days. They must all be brought home now.”
In April, PIJ released another proof-of-life video of Braslavski, in which he made a direct appeal to U.S. President Donald Trump to help bring all the hostages back.
An off-duty soldier and Jerusalem resident, Braslavski was abducted from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, where he was working as a security guard.
Speaking to Israel’s Kan broadcaster a day after Braslavski’s 21st birthday in December, his cousin, Adam Hajj, said: “He stayed behind to save people” during the Oct. 7 terrorist assault.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff after the collapse of indirect ceasefire negotiations between Jerusalem and Hamas last week in Doha.
Palestinian terror groups hold 50 hostages—49 of whom were taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of the western Negev, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped to Gaza. According to Israeli estimates, 20 of the captives are believed to be alive.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Thursday that “the fastest way to end the humanitarian crises in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages!!!”
