Israeli news organisations that had recently begun highlighting the worsening humanitarian emergency in the Gaza Strip have largely dropped that coverage after Hamas circulated videos of two visibly emaciated Israeli captives at the end of July and early August. The images of 21-year-old Rom Braslavski and 24-year-old Evyatar David sparked nationwide protests demanding the hostages’ release and prompted editors to revert to a focus on Israeli suffering and the military campaign, analysts and newsroom managers told Reuters. Before the videos appeared, anchors such as Channel 12’s Yonit Levi had called Gaza’s hunger crisis a “moral failure” and some Israeli universities and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial had urged the government to facilitate more aid. That momentum stalled as right-leaning outlets questioned famine reports and mainstream publications shifted airtime to the plight of the roughly 50 Israelis still held in Gaza. Humanitarian agencies say conditions continue to deteriorate. Gaza’s Health Ministry on 14 August raised the death toll from starvation and malnutrition to 239, including 106 children, while the United Nations warned that aid reaching the enclave remains far below requirements. Temperatures above 40 °C and chronic water shortages have compounded the risks, and local hospitals report a steady influx of malnourished children. The change in media tone comes amid government pressure on critical outlets. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has imposed an advertising embargo on the left-leaning daily Haaretz and is considering privatising public broadcaster Channel 11, steps that media academics say could further narrow debate. A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found 78 % of Jewish Israelis believe the army tries to minimise Palestinian suffering, although about 70 % would accept a cease-fire deal if it secured the hostages’ release. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault that killed about 1,200 people and led to 251 kidnappings, has so far claimed more than 61,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza health officials. Aid groups warn that the hunger crisis is becoming harder to document as domestic attention wanes.