TEL AVIV — When Hamas released a video of Evyatar David, he looked so frail and emaciated that their father did not recognize his voice, the Israeli hostage’s brother said Monday.
David, now 24, was partying at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants kidnapped him and 250 others nationwide during their sweeping, terrorist attack that saw 1,200 killed.
Hamas prompted further international outcry this weekend when it posted footage of a markedly frail David alongside that of starving Palestinians — suffering from chronic food shortages under Israel’s military operation and intensified blockade — in what his family sees as an attempt to use him as a propaganda tool.
“It breaks my parents’ hearts,” his older brother, Ilay David, 28, on Monday told NBC News in Tel Aviv about Galia and Avishay David.
He said he can’t bring himself to watch the video, but his family has likened his brother’s physical condition to images from the Holocaust. “It looks like pictures we all know from history class 80 years ago,” said Ilay David, who before the attack worked as a youth counselor but now is focused full time on bringing his brother home.
The hostages were “being kept in a near-death situation,” Ilay David said, adding that his brother “can barely speak” and he was so weak that their father couldn’t recognize his voice.
He added that his brother “needs medical care right now, and if I am not able to speak about him, advocate for him, he may not survive.”
The widespread starvation now playing out in Gaza has killed at least 170 people, 90 of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. There are around 20 hostages believed still alive after almost three years in captivity, according the latest Israeli tally.
Among them is David, who his brother described as a “brilliant guitar player” with the “kindest soul I know.” Ilay David added. “I love him and he’s my best friend.”
Ilay David spoke out after President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with families of the hostages Saturday and emphasized the administration’s commitment to returning those still inside Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke “at length” with David’s family Saturday night, expressing “deep shock” at the recordings released by Hamas, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement. He blamed Hamas for “deliberately starving” hostages and Palestinians by “preventing them from receiving aid.”
Almost 61,000 people have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign, according to Palestinian health officials. Recent international outcry about widespread malnutrition in the enclave has prompted Israel to pause fighting and let some aid in — but aid agencies say it’s not enough.
David’s brother blamed the terror group for using “him cynically in their own starvation campaign,” and calling it the “peak of cruelty.”
Ilay David said they are “worse than al Qaeda” and “worse than ISIS,” two of the major terrorist groups that have brought misery to the Middle East in recent decades.
David “still has faith, still has hope, that’s what holds him sure,” his brother said. “When he comes back — not if he comes back — we’re going to take care of him, support him and he will be greater than before.”
Matt Bradley reported from Tel Aviv and Alexander Smith from London.
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