NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, on Friday reiterated her urgent call for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, after disturbing videos showing severely emaciated captives emerged this week.
“Cruelty is being used as psychological warfare, with devastating consequences for individuals, families, societies and for peace,” Edwards said from Geneva.
She warned that the conflict in Gaza is increasingly being fought in the public arena, with graphic media coverage intensifying the psychological harm.
Last weekend, Hamas released a disturbing video of 24-year-old Evyatar David, an Israeli taken hostage at the Nova Music Festival during the Oct. 7 attacks.
He appeared extremely thin and pale, so much so that his father said he barely recognized his son. The video showed David, under the control of his Hamas captors, being forced to dig what appeared to be his own grave inside a narrow underground tunnel.
