‘I will die and they will put me in a pit’: Family of hostage Rom Braslavski air clip from Islamic Jihad propaganda video

The family of hostage Rom Braslavski has published additional footage of the 21-year-old captive, taken from a video released by his Palestinian Islamic Jihad captors last week.

Unlike the first clip cleared for publication by his family, Braslavski’s face is not blurred in the latest segment.

“Hello to everyone watching this video, my name is Rom Braslavski, 21 years old, from Jerusalem,” he begins in the video. “I am a prisoner of the Islamic Jihad, and have been held in the Gaza Strip for over a year and a half.”

The content of the video is likely dictated by his captors.

משפחתו של רום ברסלבסקי פרסמה קטע נוסף מהסרטון שלו בשבי: "עובר שנה וחצי של סבל וגיהינום"

המבזק החברתי: https://t.co/3ChEFVCyJl
המבזק החברתי בטלגרם:https://t.co/z26wp6Skq9 pic.twitter.com/ff1E51UyPN

— המבזק החברתי (@MivzakHervrati) April 22, 2025

“It has been a year and a half of suffering, every day is hell. It has been a year and a half of lacking food, lacking drink,” Braslavski continues. “There is no food. And there is no drink. The illnesses are severe, I’m sick half of the time.”

At this point, he lifts his shirt to reveal red sores across his torso that he says are constantly itchy.

“I suffer all day, I don’t know what to do with my life,” he says. “My mental state is very bad. My physical state is very bad. I have no life. I have no water. I have no food. I’m sick. There is no medicine. There is, of course, no hospital for me. Nobody will take me to the hospital.”

“The next time I am sick — nobody will take me to the hospital. What will happen is very simple: I will die and they will put me in a pit,” Braslavski says.

Braslavski’s family says they decided to release the unblurred footage published by his captors “so that his cry can be heard.”

“He’s not just screaming — he’s begging us to save him,” they say.

The video clip published by Islamic Jihad was the first recorded sign of life for Braslavski, who was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.