Hostage Evyatar David appeared pale and severely emaciated in a video released with his family’s consent on Saturday, a day after Hamas published the disturbing footage. His family stated the video indicates he is being deliberately starved.
Additional segments of the footage, also approved for release throughout the day, show David speaking in a faint voice — with words likely dictated by his captors — and digging what he fears could be his own grave.
The release came as U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff assured families of hostages that Washington is committed to a comprehensive ceasefire-and-hostage-release agreement in Gaza, and would no longer support partial or piecemeal deals. Witkoff emphasized the complexity of the process but expressed optimism that it would eventually succeed, while also affirming U.S. opposition to expanding military operations in Gaza.
Witkoff made his remarks during a visit to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where families of abductees and hundreds of supporters gathered in protest following the release of a disturbing video by Hamas showing Evyatar David, and a similarly harrowing clip published by Palestinian Islamic Jihad of hostage Rom Braslavski.
Earlier on Saturday, David’s family initially approved the release of a still image from the new Hamas video. That image was shared alongside a screenshot from a February Hamas propaganda video and a photograph of David taken before he was abducted from the Nova music festival near Re’im during Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, terror attack.
Later in the day, the family permitted the publication of part of the new footage, which shows David in a tunnel barely taller than he is. He is seen marking off dates on a calendar scratched into the tunnel wall. Appearing unshaven, disheveled, and skeletal—visibly more emaciated than in the earlier February video—David reflects the deteriorating conditions of captivity. That February clip had been filmed during the last ceasefire-hostage deal, when Israel had increased humanitarian aid to Gaza. That agreement collapsed in March.
Eventually, David’s family authorized the full video to be published by Israeli media.
“Today is July 27, at 12:00 p.m. I don’t know what I’m going to eat,” Evyatar David says in a weak voice. “I haven’t eaten for a few days in a row.”
In the disturbing video, David speaks of months of severe deprivation, describing an ongoing lack of food and water. “I am in a very, very difficult situation, for a long time—several months,” he says, adding that his captors are giving him only what they can.
“This isn’t fiction. This is real,” he says, emphasizing the harsh reality of his condition.
David explains that his diet consists mostly of lentils and beans. He points to a calendar on the tunnel wall, marking the few days when he received food and others when he went without—often for days in a row.
“I’ve been in very, very, very difficult conditions for a long time—months already,” he continues. “You can see how thin I am…”
Midway through the video, an unseen person behind the camera hands him a can of food. David holds it up and says, “This can is for two days. This whole can is for two days so that I don’t die.”
Directly addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David says he feels utterly forsaken:
“I have been completely abandoned by you, my prime minister, who is supposed to care about me and all the prisoners held by the enemy.”
At the end of the video, Evyatar David is seen digging a hole inside the tunnel — what he fears may be his own grave. He describes feeling “weaker and weaker” each day and approaching death.
“This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in,” he says. “Time is running out. You are the only ones who can end this.”
Hamas refers to the hostages it abducted as “prisoners,” and the group released this new footage as international aid agencies, including the United Nations, warn of escalating hunger in Gaza, partially blaming Israeli aid restrictions. Israel has firmly rejected those allegations, calling them Hamas propaganda.
During the Hostages Square rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday, the mother of another hostage said a senior Israeli official dismissed her concern that her son appeared “skin and bones,” labeling it Hamas propaganda.
In response to the video, David’s family issued a searing statement:
“We are forced to witness our dear son and brother Evyatar being deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza — a living skeleton buried alive. Our son has only a few days left to live in his current condition.”
They condemned Hamas’s use of Evyatar as a tool in what they called a “disgusting hunger campaign,” demanding that humanitarian aid entering Gaza be extended to include the hostages as well.
“Our Evyatar is being starved for the Hamas terror group’s propaganda purposes,” the statement continued. “There is no limit to the pain the Hamas terror group causes the hostages and the residents of Gaza.”
In a direct appeal to global leaders, the family pleaded:
“We are begging the government of Israel, the people of Israel, every nation of the world — and especially President Trump — to do everything in your power, by any means necessary, to save Evyatar and Guy [Gilboa-Dalal, with whom he is held], and the rest of the hostages. They urgently need proper food and medical care so their lives can be saved.”
A senior Israeli source was quoted on Channel 12 on Saturday night saying that the Hamas captors are not short of food, and are deliberately starving the hostages. “We know from testimony of returned hostages and from our own information that the hostages’ captors don’t look like [the emaciated hostages],” the official says. “This is deliberate starvation, not only to abuse the hostages themselves but also to abuse their families and the public.”
