In footage released Friday and cleared for publication the next day by his family, Israeli hostage Evyatar David appears visibly starved, gaunt, and barely able to speak as he stands in a dimly lit tunnel in Gaza—describing in chilling detail the daily torment he endures at the hands of Hamas. David, kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the October 7 terror massacre, is seen digging what he believes could soon be his own grave.

His family, who permitted the release of the video after much deliberation, said the footage was undeniable proof that Hamas is deliberately starving him, Times of Israel reported

In the video, David, clearly skeletal and disheveled, explains in a frail voice that he hasn’t eaten for several days and that what little food he receives—a can of lentils or beans—is rationed out just to keep him from dying.

Whilst the world debates if Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi because she has nice boobs, actual muslim Nazis are forcing a Jew to dig his own grave in an underground dungeon where he’s been held hostage for two years and is as starved and emaciated as a Holocaust victim… pic.twitter.com/fdle726Vuf

— leekern (@leekern13) August 2, 2025

“I haven’t eaten for a few days in a row,” he says. “This can is for two days so that I don’t die.” Behind him, the tunnel’s ceiling nearly touches his head. A calendar on the wall is marked with dates showing his meals—or more often, the absence of them.

“I am getting weaker and weaker,” David says, before describing how he is being made to dig a grave. “This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out.”

The video has sent shockwaves through Israeli society, prompting an emotional demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square where relatives of captives and hundreds of supporters gathered to demand immediate government action. Protesters constructed a symbolic barbed-wire enclosure in the square, where family members sat inside to mirror the captivity of their loved ones.

For the rest of my life, I will judge the NGOs, media outlets, and governments around the world that gave this demonic behavior by Hamas a pass or turned a blind eye.

If Israel has to be alone in the face of this Islamist death cult, so be it. I stand with Israel. #EvyatarDavid pic.twitter.com/PeHpVD6fx0

— Sia Kordestani (@SiaKordestani) August 1, 2025

David’s family issued a stark 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.” They called on the Israeli media to stop circulating Hamas propaganda but insisted the truth of Evyatar’s treatment needed to be exposed. “Hamas is using our son as a human experiment in a hunger campaign,” they said.

A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that the starvation is not incidental. “This is deliberate. The captors themselves are eating. This is a psychological weapon—against the hostages, their families, and the Israeli public.”

Hamas has released a new, horrifying video showing hostage Evyatar David forced to dig his own grave.

Where is the global outrage? pic.twitter.com/3MmnkaYhId

— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) August 2, 2025

The release of the footage coincided with the visit of U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Tel Aviv. Speaking to hostages’ families, Witkoff emphasized the Biden administration’s full commitment to a comprehensive ceasefire and hostage-release deal, vowing that the U.S. would no longer support “piecemeal” agreements. “We are going to get your children home,” Witkoff said. “This is the number one priority President Trump has given me. No piecemeal deals. That doesn’t work. We’ve tried everything.”

Witkoff’s visit came amid growing international scrutiny of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the United Nations and various aid organizations accusing Israel of exacerbating hunger in the Strip. Israel has pushed back firmly on those claims, blaming Hamas for hoarding supplies and using starvation as both a propaganda tool and a weapon of war.

According to the Times of Israel, David’s family initially released a still image from the video alongside a photo taken in February, during a previous hostage ceasefire deal. The visual contrast was devastating—David, who was visibly thin in February, now appears skeletal. Eventually, the family allowed the full video to be published, despite their anguish, to reveal what they described as the truth of Hamas’s inhuman treatment of captives.

During the demonstration in Hostages Square, relatives issued heartbreaking statements. Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is also held hostage, said, “Our children are undergoing a Holocaust.” Anat Angrest, another hostage’s mother, called the crisis “a complete failure” of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s promise of a “complete victory” over Hamas.

“Our Evyatar has only days to live,” his family warned. “He is being starved to death while the world debates diplomacy.”

In response to accusations that such claims are Hamas fabrications, Israel’s hostage affairs envoy Gal Hirsch said his comment was misconstrued—he was referring to the videos as propaganda, not the actual suffering of the hostages.

Since the outbreak of war on October 7, when Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251, 50 hostages are believed to still be held in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed 28 of them are dead.

The war’s toll on Gaza has been catastrophic, with Hamas claiming over 60,000 fatalities. That number, which includes combatants and civilians, has not been independently verified. Meanwhile, Israel has lost 459 soldiers in its ground operations and border fighting.

As the humanitarian crisis deepens and hostages like David fade into what his family calls “a slow, televised execution,” pressure mounts on both Israel and the international community to act before more captives disappear into Gaza’s tunnels forever.