In Latvia, Herzog calls on international community to work for release of Gaza hostages

President Isaac Herzog calls on the international community to unite in securing the release of 50 Israeli hostages held by Hamas under “horrific, inhumane conditions” during his state visit to Latvia.

“Just three days ago, Hamas released a video of hostage Evyatar David. You see the fat, heavy hand of [his] captor, and Evyatar David’s bones protruding from starvation,” Herzog says, standing next to Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkevics, in Riga.

David and hostage Rom Braslavski, of whom footage was also released, can be seen, the president says, “begging for their lives…enduring unspeakable hell, deliberate starvation.”

Herzog is in Latvia as part of a diplomatic visit to the Baltic states, meeting with his Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian counterparts as well as other senior officials, to rally global support for freeing the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, assist Israel’s diplomatic efforts, strengthen bilateral economic and security ties, and increase international pressure on Iran, according to his office.

“I call on the international community and the entire world to take a clear and decisive stance to bring all the hostages home,” he says, noting that he spoke with the president of the International Red Cross yesterday about getting food and medicine to the hostages.

Amid international outrage over the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza, Herzog says that 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid have entered the strip in the last ten days, along with 120 airdrops from various countries. He invites “the Baltic states — especially Latvia — to join in these efforts.”

Herzog also warns of the “Iranian threat, which continues to destabilize… not only our region, but the entire world,” calling Tehran “a global threat and supplier of global terror.”