New Delhi, Aug. 5 -- Ofir Braslavski watched as his emaciated son, Rom, writhed in anguish on a dirty mattress somewhere inside the Gaza Strip, in video footage released by Palestinian militants in recent days showing the agony of Israeli hostages.

"You see your child dying before your eyes, and you can't do anything," he told The Associated Press on Monday from his home. "It drives you crazy, it's unbearable."

New images of two skeletal hostages have horrified Israelis and added pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire with Hamas, even as his government considers another expansion of the war, which has already destroyed much of Gaza and pushed it toward famine.

In the video released by the Islamic Jihad milit...