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Israeli billboard in Times Square highlights plight of starving hostage

“Their situation is urgent and they must be freed now,” the Consulate General of Israel in New York told JNS of Rom Braslavski and the other hostages.

Israeli consulate NY campaign
Screen capture of an Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and Consulate General of Israel in New York billboard campaign in Times Square, Aug. 12, 2025. Source: Consulate General of Israel video.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Consulate General of Israel in New York launched a billboard campaign in Times Square to call attention to starving hostage Rom Braslavski, who was kidnapped during the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

Braslavski’s captors, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, released a video recently of the severely emaciated 24-year-old, clearly under emotional distress.

“The consulate hopes this Times Square campaign will not only spotlight Rom’s horrific suffering and starvation in Gaza’s tunnels, but also serve as a stark reminder that Israel still has 50 hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and are being starved, tortured and held in inhumane conditions,” the consulate told JNS.

“Their situation is urgent, and they must be freed now,” the consulate said.

A similar campaign highlighted the plight of hostage Evyatar David, a Hamas captive who is also being starved.

“No one will lecture us on morality while humanitarian aid continues to flow into the Gaza Strip and is systematically stolen by Hamas,” stated Ofir Akunis, the consul general of Israel in New York. “We will keep exposing the crimes of terror to the world.”

Mike Wagenheim is a Washington-based correspondent for JNS, primarily covering the U.S. State Department and Congress. He is the senior U.S. correspondent at the Israel-based i24NEWS TV network.
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