'A residing skeleton buried alive’: Hamas hostage Evyatar David pressured to dig what he fears shall be his personal grave

[ad_1] Hostage Evyatar David appeared pale and emaciated in a video that his household accepted for publication on Saturday, a day after the Hamas terror group launched the surprising footage of him. His household stated it confirmed he was being intentionally starved.

The Hamas footage, extra of which was accepted by the household for publication in the middle of Saturday, consists of David talking in a weak voice, in remarks possible dictated to him by his captors, and reveals him digging what he says he fears shall be his personal grave.

The video was accepted for publication as US particular envoy Steve Witkoff informed hostages’ households that Washington helps a complete Gaza ceasefire-hostage settlement and would now not search “piecemeal offers,” and is against increasing the combating in Gaza. The trouble was sophisticated, he stated, however he believed it might in the end succeed.

Witkoff made the feedback throughout a go to to Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, the place hostages’ family and a whole lot of supporters rallied after Hamas put out the video of David and Palestinian Islamic Jihad revealed equally harrowing footage of hostage Rom Braslavski .

Initially on Saturday, David’s household accepted for publication a nonetheless picture from the brand new footage, which was shared alongside a screenshot from a Hamas propaganda video launched in February and {a photograph} of him earlier than he was kidnapped from the Reim-area Nova music pageant throughout the terror onslaught of October 7, 2023.

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By signing up, you comply with the terms It then accepted the publication of a part of the footage, during which David is seen in a tunnel with a ceiling roughly as excessive as he's tall, crossing off dates on a calendar on the tunnel’s wall. He's unkempt and unshaven, and seems skeletal even as compared with the February video, which was filmed over the last ceasefire-hostage take care of Hamas, as Israel elevated the stream of support into Gaza. That deal collapsed in March.

The household later permitted Israeli media to publish the total video.

A nonetheless of hostage Evyatar David taken from a Hamas propaganda video (left) subsequent to images of him in captivity in February (middle), and earlier than his seize in 2023. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)

“Right this moment is July 27, at 12:00 p.m., I don’t know what I’m going to eat,” he says. “I haven’t eaten for just a few days in a row.”

“I'm in a really, very tough scenario, for a very long time, for just a few months,” he says, describing the dearth of meals and water, and stating that his captors are giving him what they'll.

“This isn’t fiction, that is actual,” David provides.

He says his eating regimen consists primarily of some lentils and beans, pointing to the calendar and noting days he has eaten, and several other days in a row when he hasn’t acquired meals.

He says he has been in “very, very, very situations for a really very long time, just a few months already… You may see how skinny I'm…”

In the midst of the video, the particular person behind the digital camera arms him a can: “This could is for 2 days. This complete can is for 2 days in order that I don’t die.”

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David says he feels, “I've been utterly deserted by you, my prime minister, who is meant to fret about me and all of the prisoners held by the enemy.”

Hamas labels the hostages it took as “prisoners.”

On the finish of the video, David describes himself digging what he fears shall be his personal grave contained in the tunnel, as he's filmed doing so. He states that he's feeling “weaker and weaker” by the day and heading towards loss of life.

“That is the grave I believe I’m going to be buried in,” he says. “Time is operating out. You're the solely ones who can finish this.”

The brand new Hamas movies had been despatched because the United Nations and different support businesses have warned of mounting starvation in Gaza on account of Israel’s support insurance policies. Israel has rejected the accusations of hunger as Hamas propaganda. In the course of the Hostages Sq. rally on Saturday, the mom of a hostage stated a senior authorities official dismissed as Hamas propaganda her concern that her son was “pores and skin and bones.”

In a press release on the brand new footage, David’s household stated: “We're pressured to witness our expensive son and brother Evyatar being intentionally and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza — a residing skeleton buried alive. Our son has just a few days left to stay in his present situation.”

“Hamas is utilizing our son, Evyatar, as a residing experiment in a disgusting starvation marketing campaign,” the household stated, demanding that humanitarian support coming into Gaza additionally attain David and urging “Israeli media to cease pumping Hamas propaganda.”

“Our Evyatar is being starved for the Hamas terror group’s propaganda functions,” continued the household. “There is no such thing as a restrict to the ache the Hamas terror group causes the hostages and the residents of Gaza.”

Witkoff: Plan is to finish conflict, not develop it Witkoff, who was greeted with applause at Hostages Sq., informed family of captives there that “the plan is at present to not develop the conflict, however to complete it,” in response to a press release from the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, which quoted in Hebrew the envoy’s English-language feedback.

“A majority of Israelis need the hostages at house, and a majority of Gaza’s public desires the return of hostages as a result of they need the rehabilitation of the Strip,” he was quoted as saying within the Hebrew assertion.

Neither remark appeared within the discussion board’s English-language assertion on what it stated was a three-hour assembly.

US particular envoy Steve Witkoff at Hostages Sq. in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board/Paulina Patimer)

In English, Witkoff was quoted as telling the hostages’ households: “We are going to get your kids house and maintain Hamas accountable for any unhealthy acts on their half. We are going to do what’s proper for the Gaza individuals.”

“We now have to carry all of them house. We're very near ending the conflict,” he stated, in response to the assertion. “We now have a plan to finish the conflict and convey everybody house.”

“We all know who's alive, and somebody shall be guilty in the event that they don’t come out alive. The US stands behind this assertion,” Witkoff added.

He was additionally quoted as saying that the hostages’ launch is a “first precedence” and “sacred mission” for the administration of US President Donald Trump.

“That is a very powerful factor Trump requested me to work on, and I'll on it till my final breath,” stated Witkoff, who has additionally overseen US negotiations with Russia on the Ukraine conflict and with Iran over its nuclear program.

US particular envoy Steve Witkoff speaks to hostages’ households at Hostages Sq., in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)

In a recording from the assembly revealed by Channel 12 information, Witkoff might be heard telling the households that Washington was now not excited about a ceasefire settlement that may launch solely a few of the hostages. The Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board has lengthy assailed such agreements as needlessly prolonging their family members’ struggling.

“No piecemeal offers,” Witkoff stated. “That doesn’t work. And we’ve tried every part.”

“I hear your frustration, and I perceive it. You need your kids house, and who wouldn’t?” stated Witkoff, including that Trump “cares as a lot about your kids as he would about any American hostage that was in there.”

Regardless of what he described as a “tremendous sophisticated scenario,” Witkoff stated he believes “we're going to achieve success right here in the end… for lots of causes and a few of these I can’t talk about proper now.”

US particular envoy Steve Witkoff meets with hostages’ households at Hostages Sq., in Tel Aviv, August 2, 2025. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board)

In Hebrew, Channel 12 quoted him as saying that the “negotiations with Hamas had been very irritating,” and that “we expect the negotiations want to show into all-or-nothing.”

The feedback got here after Netanyahu had reportedly not dominated out the advice by his far-right coalition companions, who oppose a ceasefire-hostage deal, to raze Gaza Metropolis and take full management of the Strip.

Witkoff additionally reportedly told the families of hostages that a part of ending the continuing conflict requires the demilitarization of Hamas, and that “Hamas stated that it is able to demilitarize.”

“Past this, some Arab nations are demanding that Hamas disarm,” he was quoted as saying.

Hamas later put out a statement vowing to not disarm “so long as the occupation exists” and lashing out at Witkoff over the Trump administration’s efforts to spice up the quantity of humanitarian support coming into Gaza.

‘Jews turning into pores and skin and bones due to political survival’ A whole lot of individuals gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Sq. on Saturday afternoon, the place members of the family of hostages held in Gaza arrange a barbed wire protest camp in the course of the sq., following the discharge of the footage of David and Braslavski.

“In opposition to the backdrop of horrifying footage and harsh studies concerning the hostages’ situation – hostage households will cry out this morning within the coronary heart of Tel Aviv: A barbed wire fence compound shall be erected in Hostages Sq., members of the family will sit imprisoned inside it – and cry out the determined plea of their family members who're dying in captivity,” the discussion board stated in a press release.

“We attraction to the Israeli authorities and the US administration: Look our family members – and us – within the eyes. The hazard to their lives is tangible and rapid. The chance of shedding these deceased is rising,” it continued.

“That is the time for a complete deal and an finish to the conflict. No extra delays. No extra leaving them behind. Cease this nightmare and convey them out of the tunnels and residential,” the assertion stated.

The weekly anti-government protests and hostage rallies held on Saturday evenings are anticipated to be extra subdued this week, because the Jewish vacation quick of Tisha B’Av begins at sunset on Saturday night. Some rallies will nonetheless be held in cities and cities throughout Israel, together with anti-war rallies in blended and Arab cities organized by the Jewish-Arab coexistence group Standing Collectively.

Households of Israelis held hostage within the Gaza Strip since October 2023 display in Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostage’ sq. throughout US envoy Steve Witkoff’s go to on August 2, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

“In current days, we noticed the tough movies of Rom and Evyatar from captivity,” Einav Zangauker, mom of hostage Matan Zangauker , stated on the Tel Aviv protest camp. “Our kids are present process a Holocaust.”

“Jews have gotten pores and skin and bones due to political survival,” stated Zangauker, who has lengthy accused Netanyahu of prolonging the conflict to appease his far-right coalition companions. “If we don’t free everybody now, they won't survive for for much longer.”

Anat Angrest, mom of captive soldier Matan , stated that the continuing disaster is a “full failure” for Netanyahu, enjoying on his promise to attain a “full victory” over Hamas within the ongoing conflict.

“I'm standing right here as a result of my son goes by a second Holocaust. I'm the picture of failure for the prime minister. I prevented utilizing the phrase Holocaust till now, as a result of I'm a daughter of a Holocaust survivor,” she stated.

“My father goes by a second Holocaust by his grandson. We see movies of the Holocaust in colour. The 2025 Holocaust is continuous and lengthening due to the Israeli authorities,” she added.

Within the sq., she recounted telling the federal government’s hostage level man, Gal Hirsch, that her son was “pores and skin and bones,” and that he replied to her that such feedback had been “Hamas propaganda.”

Anat Angrest, whose son Matan is held hostage in Gaza, speaks at Hostages Sq., August 2, 2025. (Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board/Paulina Patimer)

In a response on X to the assertion, Hirsch accused the media of misrepresenting his remarks. In accordance with Hirsch, in a private message to a hostage’s relative, he stated the movies launched by terror teams of hostages “are a part of Hamas’s hunger marketing campaign,” and never that the captives’ struggling itself was propaganda.

As pictures of hungry Gazans and studies of imminent famine have mounted in current days and weeks, resulting in widespread worldwide condemnation, Netanyahu and the Israel Protection Forces have strenuously rejected allegations that Israel is finishing up an intentional hunger marketing campaign within the Strip.

Israel has additionally rejected the declare of widespread, famine-level starvation and has instituted new measures, together with 10-hour pauses in combating all through giant swaths of the Strip, to spice up support distribution within the territory.

A Palestinian boy receives the final drops of lentil soup at a meals distribution level in Gaza Metropolis on August 1, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Warfare broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 individuals and kidnapping 251. Of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, the IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28.

The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 60,000 individuals within the Strip have been killed or are presumed useless within the combating thus far, although the toll can't be verified and doesn't differentiate between civilians and fighters.

Israel’s toll within the floor offensive in opposition to Hamas in Gaza and in army operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 459.

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