Video of Israeli captives stirs global outcry — Palestinians ask: who speaks for our jailed and our dead?
GAZA/TEL AVIV — Palestinian resistance groups have released video footage of two Israeli captives held in Gaza, both appearing visibly weak, with signs of poor health — a stark reflection of the prolonged war that has devastated the besieged enclave and left the region in deep humanitarian crisis.
The footage, shared on Monday, immediately triggered urgent calls for international intervention — with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for access and assistance.
But while Israeli officials rush to the global stage demanding attention for their captured citizens, Palestinian families and human rights groups are asking a different question: Where is the same global urgency for the over 9,000 Palestinians — including children, women, and the elderly — languishing in Israeli prisons, many without charge, trial, or access to basic medical care?
The Other Side of Captivity
Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank have long decried the systematic detention of their people under what they call a brutal and racist occupation. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, the number of administrative detainees — those held without charge — has reached an all-time high. Many families have not heard from their loved ones in months, with reports of abuse, solitary confinement, and denial of medication.
“We are told to feel sympathy when Israeli captives are shown in weak condition. We do. But who will show the world the images of our sons beaten in cells, or our daughters crying in military courts?” said Amina Shalabi, whose 17-year-old son has been detained without trial since February.
Gaza: A Land of Rubble and Resistance
Since October, Israel’s military campaign has turned large parts of Gaza into graveyards. Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children, and more than 85,000 injured. Entire families have been wiped out. Hospitals are bombed. Schools have become makeshift shelters for the displaced, and access to clean water and food remains a daily struggle.
In this scorched landscape, Palestinian resistance fighters argue that the only leverage they have left is the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners — a tactic used by both sides in the past.
Yet international media rarely frames this as a political negotiation, instead portraying Palestinians as aggressors without acknowledging decades of dispossession, siege, and apartheid-like policies.
A Lopsided Global Response
When Israeli hostages appear in distress, Western leaders flood newsrooms and podiums with statements of outrage and solidarity. But when entire Palestinian families are buried under rubble, or when Palestinian children scream for help in bombed-out hospitals, the global response is largely muted.
This hypocrisy has fueled a growing global protest movement, from Sydney to London, New York to Cape Town, with hundreds of thousands marching weekly for a permanent ceasefire and justice for the Palestinian people. Even within Israel, a vocal minority is now calling on Netanyahu’s government to negotiate a comprehensive prisoner exchange and end the cycle of destruction.
A Call for Equal Humanity
The new footage should not just be seen as a call to action for the release of Israeli captives — but as a broader cry from a war-torn region where civilian lives on both sides are trapped in a cycle of fear, siege, and dehumanization.
“If international law means anything, it must mean equality in pain, in dignity, and in rights,” said Dr. Laila Haddad, a Gaza-based physician who lost her brother in an Israeli airstrike. “Every life matters — not just Israeli lives.”
As the war grinds on with no political solution in sight, the world is once again faced with a choice: to either intervene for all — or stand accused of selective compassion.
