An Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza was seen digging what he described as his own grave in a new video released by the terrorist group. The footage shows the hostage, visibly starved and shirtless, inside a narrow underground tunnel.
The five-minute video, released Friday and later cleared for publication by the family, shows 24-year-old Evyatar David crossing out days on a makeshift calendar hung on the tunnel wall, describing his starvation and receiving a single can of beans that he says must last two days.
The footage includes scenes of David stating he has not eaten in several days and has barely had drinking water, saying, “This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out,” according to news.com.au.
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David, who was abducted from the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was 22 at the time of his capture. His family said they were “forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’ tunnels in Gaza — a living skeleton, buried alive,” as reported by the BBC.
The video concludes with a message on a black screen that reads, “They eat what we eat. They drink what we drink.” It also intersperses scenes of David with images of starving Palestinian children and includes clips of Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir calling for a halt to aid deliveries to Gaza, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The release of the video has triggered global outrage and intensified calls for the hostages’ release.
In Tel Aviv, thousands gathered Saturday to demand action, waving posters of missing Israelis. Ilay David, Evyatar’s brother, urged President Donald Trump to intervene “by any means necessary” to secure their release. “To remain silent now is to be complicit in their slow agonizing death,” he was quoted as saying.
The same day, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with the families of David and another hostage, Rom Braslavski.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff also met with several hostage families but told them there was no news of progress in negotiations with Hamas. “The situation is complicated,” he said, adding that a deal to end the war and release all hostages was near but declined to offer details. He said the U.S. would accept only a full deal, not a piecemeal one.
This is the second hostage video Hamas or allied groups have released within 24 hours. On Thursday, Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of Braslavski, also appearing emaciated and visibly distressed.
Both men are among the 49 hostages Israel says remain in Gaza, 27 of whom are believed to be dead. David last appeared in a Hamas video in February, where he and fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal were shown pleading for their release while sitting inside a van as other hostages were being freed.
Family members and former hostages have described the conditions inside Hamas tunnels as deliberately cruel.
Yaelah David, Evyatar’s sister, wrote on Instagram, “After a night of crying over my brother, who has become a walking skeleton in Gaza’s cruel dungeon, I understood that the whole world needs to see this.” She said Hamas was preventing aid from reaching both hostages and Gaza civilians, using starvation as a media tool.
Former hostage Omer Wenkert, who said he was held alongside David for 250 days, described the tunnels as bare, underground prisons. He called for a full return of hostages and asked whether there was “even one photo of a Hamas terrorist who looks like Evyatar.”
Tal Shoham, who was held with David and Gilboa-Dalal, described their treatment as abusive and mentally destructive. “They filmed us constantly,” Shoham said. “From what I understood, there was also an explosive device next to the camera, aimed at us — so it would take out everything in the tunnel if the IDF tried to rescue us.”
David’s family has repeatedly appealed to both the Israeli government and the international community for help. His mother described him to Israeli media as a gentle and insightful person who loved music and played both the guitar and piano.
As of Sunday, Hamas has refused to release more hostages and has demanded Jerusalem be handed over to them to become the capital of a Palestinian state.
