Medical experts say both men have lost up to 50 per cent of their body mass. They are severely malnourished, with body fat under 5 per cent. Death from heart collapse, organ failure, or mental breakdown is imminent. These are not assumptions, they are facts confirmed by leading dietitians, neuropsychologists, and public health experts. Every hour of delay could cost them their lives.
Israeli hostage Evyatar David in a Hamas tunnel (Credit: -/Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades/AFP via Getty Images) Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades/AFP
Fifty hostages remain in captivity, all with urgent medical conditions. They have been held for nearly 22 months in inhumane conditions that violate every standard of international law and every principle of basic morality. This is the longest mass hostage crisis in recent history, yet the international community remains largely unmoved.
Where is the outrage? Where is the full-throated, unconditional demand for their immediate release?
In May 2024, we stood with Evyatar’s older brother, Ilay, at Westminster. One-hundred and twenty-seven people, representing the number of hostages still held at the time, gathered to take part in a symbolic photoshoot, standing in solidarity with this delegation of siblings and young family members. It was a moment of collective witness, of shared determination to say: you are not alone.
In September, we met Galia, Evyatar’s mother. She shared tender memories, how he played guitar at family gatherings, how his absence has silenced their home, how much his hugs are missed. She cannot watch the video of his abduction. It would shatter her.
Almost a year later, Galia returned to London as part of another delegation. We could see the toll. Her eyes tired, hands trembling, a quiet voice laced with relentless fear.
This is the personal cost. This is what the hostage families live with, not just grief, but unfinished concern, unrelenting dread, and often, hopelessness. Every day they wake into the same nightmare. Their children, their parents, their loved ones, are being held beneath the ground, beyond reach, beyond reason.
And yet, they fight.
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Since the earliest days of this crisis, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum UK has worked tirelessly to ensure the hostages are never forgotten. Our efforts are not only political, they are deeply personal. Every delegation we organise, every march we plan, every meeting we facilitate with parliamentarians, diplomats, and faith leaders is infused with care, urgency, and resolve.
We have helped bring hostage families to speak in Parliament, at party conferences, and in international embassies. We have built diplomatic relationships where there was once silence. We have mobilised our community again and again, writing letters, filling town halls, marching in the streets, and creating space for Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and secular voices to unite around a simple truth: hostages should not be left to die in darkness.
But we also support the families behind the scenes. We hold them when they break. We help carry them when they collapse. We wrap them in love, in solidarity, and in a promise: we will not stop fighting for your loved ones.
The Forum’s work is independent, community-driven, and multi-faith. It exists to remind this country, and the world, that every single day a hostage remains in Gaza is a profound failure of our shared humanity.
This is not just a Jewish or Israeli issue. It is a human rights issue. A moral test. A question of whether we truly believe in the value of every human life, even when it is politically inconvenient.
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The hostages are running out of time. Some have already died in captivity, instead of returning to the lives they were violently taken from. Time has run out.
But we are not powerless.
We can speak.
We can amplify their names.
We can pressure our leaders to act.
We can stand with the families.
We can refuse to let these people disappear into darkness.
Join us this Sunday at 3:00 PM in London for the March for the Hostages.
We are marching across communities, faiths, and political lines to say one thing with one voice:
Bring them home. Alive. Now. Unconditionally.
If the image of a young man digging his own grave does not awaken us what will?
To be silent now is to abandon them.
