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Evyatar David: ‘Torturous video of my skeletal brother is meant to break us, but it won’t’
Ilay David cannot bring himself to watch the footage of his emaciated brother
August 5, 2025 09:51
Ilay David cannot bring himself to watch the footage of his emaciated brother
August 5, 2025 09:51“It’s torture, and it’s meant to break us. But it won’t.” Those are the defiant words of Ilay David, the brother of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, who appeared in a recently released Hamas propaganda video – half-naked, emaciated, and forced to dig what he said he feared would be his own grave.
Speaking to The JC, Ilay described the moment he first learned about the footage of the skeletal 24-year-old, which is so appalling he has not been able to bring himself to view it.
“I was on my way to my parents' house for Friday night dinner when the video was released. My phone started blowing up – messages, calls, notifications. I haven’t watched it, I can’t. Just hearing the descriptions was enough to break me,” Ilay said.
“People said Evyatar looks like a ghost of himself – starving, barely able to speak, just skin and bones. No one should ever be seen in that condition, let alone paraded on video. It’s torture,” he added.
Evyatar and his childhood best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel.
In February this year, during an Israel-Hamas ceasefire which saw the release of 25 living Israeli hostages and the remains of eight deceased victims, Evyatar and Guy were forced to watch a hostage release ceremony from inside a nearby vehicle before being returned to captivity underground.
On Saturday, the David family issued a statement describing their son as "a living skeleton, buried alive.”
The family fear that Evyatar has only days to live if his condition continues to deteriorate and described his deliberate starvation as a horrifying act carried out to advance Hamas’s propaganda efforts.
“The intentional starvation, torture, and abuse of Evyatar for propaganda purposes violate[s] even the lowest standards of humanitarian law and basic human decency,” they said.
The Davids have called on the Israeli government and public along with the international community, and US President Donald Trump “to do everything possible to save Evyatar from death and ensure, by any means necessary, that he urgently receives food and medical care.”
The video of Evyatar was shared just a day after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released footage of another Israeli hostage, Rom Braslavski, pleading for food.
Asking JC readers to do their part to increase pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages, Ilay urged: “Don’t just watch this video and move on. Don’t file it away as another headline.
“Demand access to the hostages. Demand real proof that they’re receiving food, water, and medical care. And apply pressure – real, focused, global pressure – on Hamas,” he said.
“They are the ones holding innocent people underground. They are the ones preventing a deal. They are the ones torturing both hostages and their own people. Words are not enough anymore. The world must act,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Saturday saying he had spoken "at length" with the families of both Evyatar and Rom.
“The cruelty of Hamas has no boundaries,” he said.
“While the state of Israel is allowing the entry of humanitarian aid to the residents of Gaza, the terrorists of Hamas are deliberately starving our hostages and documenting them in a cynical and evil manner.”
“The terrorists of Hamas are deliberately starving the residents of the Strip—preventing them from receiving aid and stirring up a slanderous propaganda campaign against Israel,” he added.
“The entire world must take a stand in a clear message against the criminal Nazi abuse perpetrated by the Hamas terror organisation.”
On Sunday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a medical report warning that “the hostages are being systematically starved and are on the brink of death.” The findings were based on the footage of Evyatar and Rom, testimonies from released captives, medical assessments of survivors, and forensic reports on murdered hostages.
Experienced clinical dietitians who conducted weight assessments, estimated that, based on Evyatar physical appearance in the clip, his body weight had dropped by roughly 41 per cent. He is believed to weigh as little as six stone (40kg) now.
Professor Ronit Endevelt, a former head of the nutrition division at Israel’s Ministry of Health who contributed to the report said of the men’s appearance: “You can’t live in such a starvation state. It’s a situation which could lead to injury to the heart, the kidney, the liver or the brain.”
She added: “Brain starvation influences the cognitional state and emotional state. The fact that they don’t have any possibility of being exposed to light is a danger because they are not getting any vitamin D.”
For Ilay it is imperative that Israel breaks free of the current stalemate and makes its position clear: “That we won’t forget our hostages still in Gaza, alive and dead. And if Hamas isn’t negotiating in good faith, then we need to shift the pressure. We need every tool – diplomatic, economic, strategic – aimed directly at Hamas.”
There can be “no more waiting," he insisted, "no more partial deals that leave people behind. Our government’s job is to bring everyone home.”
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