The family of Evyatar David, an Israeli held hostage in Gaza, saw him for the first time in months on Friday evening in a video circulated by his Hamas captors. He was emaciated and sallow in what appeared to be an underground tunnel.
The video prompted an outpouring of fear and horror among the families of the dozens of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza nearly two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and ignited the war.
“Our brothers are turning into skin and bones at this very moment,” Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan was one of about 250 people taken hostage during the Hamas assault, said at a rally on Saturday. His son is believed to still be alive.
More than 100 hostages were freed during two short-lived cease-fires, the last of which ended in March. Israeli forces have found the corpses of some other hostages as they swept through Gaza. Israel believes that about 20 hostages are still alive and nearly 30 are presumed dead.
Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas to free more hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners have stalled. Last month, Israeli and American negotiators left Doha, Qatar, where most of the talks have been held, without a breakthrough.
On Saturday, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with the families of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv. He reiterated Mr. Trump’s commitment to bringing home the remaining captives and said, “those who are alive must be kept alive,” according to the Hostage Families Forum, an advocacy group.
Mr. David, 24, was abducted in one of the deadliest scenes of Oct. 7. at the Nova rave in southern Israel, where more than 350 people were killed. His family said in a statement that he had become a “living skeleton, buried alive” in Hamas tunnels.
Before the latest video, he was last seen in a video released by Hamas in March, in which militants filmed him watching from a distance while other Israeli hostages were freed during a two-month truce. Human rights experts say the videos — taken under extreme duress — could constitute a war crime.
In the new Hamas video, other footage of Mr. David was spliced alongside images of gaunt Gazans.
Mass hunger has spread through Gaza as Israel limits the amount of humanitarian aid going in and desperation breeds chaos around most of what does get through. More than one in three of Gaza’s two million people are not eating for multiple consecutive days, according to the World Food Program.
Israel is pressing ahead with its military campaign in Gaza, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since the war began, including thousands of children, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
For months, relatives of Israeli hostages and their supporters have constituted one of the few pockets of resistance inside Israel to the war against Hamas. The families of Israeli hostages fear their loved ones could also be killed should the war continue, either by Israeli bombardment or by their Palestinian abductors.
“We tried everything — military pressure, displacing people, blocking food, conquering areas, eliminating Hamas commanders — none of that brought all of the hostages back,” Ms. Zangauker said. “The one thing we haven’t tried is a comprehensive agreement in exchange for ending the war.”
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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