Israeli official: Hamas has plenty of food, is deliberately starving the hostages

Responding to videos released by Hamas over the past three days showing hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski looking emaciated, a senior Israeli source is quoted on Channel 12 as saying that the Hamas captors are not short of food, and are deliberately starving the hostages.

“We know from testimony of returned hostages and from our own information that the hostages’ captors don’t look like [the emaciated hostages],” the official says. “This is deliberate starvation, not only to abuse the hostages themselves but also to abuse their families and the public.”

Channel 12 also quotes visiting US envoy Steve Witkoff, who went to Gaza yesterday, telling the families that there is a shortage of food in the Strip, but no starvation. “After we debunk that claim, we can continue the negotiation,” it claims Witkoff said.

Channel 12 also quotes an Israeli source saying, “There is no deal in the offing. It’s not that the talks have been cut off, in the technical sense, but there is no real negotiation.”

The report notes Israel has made clear it wants “a comprehensive deal” rather than another phased or partial hostage-ceasefire agreement, as US envoy Steve Witkoff also told the hostages’ families earlier today. But, it goes on, there is not much prospect of bridging the gap between Israel’s demand for the destruction of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza and Hamas’s desire to remain in power.

The TV report notes that when the cabinet meets later this week, far-right ministers will be pushing for the full capture of Gaza, where the IDF currently controls some 75% of the territory, which would include entering areas where hostages are believed to be held. The IDF, it notes, opposes this.

Channel 12 political commentator Amit Segal says later in the broadcast that the Netanyahu government and the Trump Administration are in advanced contact regarding an ultimatum that would be issued to Hamas: Either Hamas frees all the hostages, lays down its weapons, and the US then coordinates an international administration to oversee Gaza’s governance after the war, or, if Hamas refuses, the US will give Israel a green light to act as it sees fit in Gaza.

Witkoff was quoted telling families of hostages earlier today that Trump is seeking a comprehensive deal to free all the hostages, and that the US wants the war to end, not expand.