A shocking Hamas propaganda video released on Saturday shows a pale and emaciated hostage, identified as Evyatar David, digging his own grave.
Israel's foreign ministry claimed in an X post that David, 24, was being deliberately starved and abused—a claim echoed by David's family.
Ein neues Video von Eyvatar David, welches von der Familie bereits freigegeben wurde.
— David Rosenblatt (@b4l4g4n) August 2, 2025
Hamas lässt ihn sein eigenes Grab schaufeln.
Seit dem 07.10.2023 geht es nur darum, uns Juden zu retraumatisieren, mithilfe einer Armee von westlichen Linken 🍉. pic.twitter.com/d3PF1Pk8H6
In the harrowing video, David can be seen describing his meal schedule, explaining that he and the other prisoners barely received any food (such as lentils, beans, or bread), and would often starve.
"I feel that I have been abandoned," he says, with his ribs poking out of his frail body, as he appealed to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to save the hostages.
"Time is running out," David says in a broken voice, as he quite literally digs his own grave, before a message pops up on the screen accompanied by ominous music, stating that only a ceasefire agreement could bring them back.
"Our children are experiencing a Holocaust. If we don't get them all out now, they won't survive much longer!"
— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) August 2, 2025
Come fight with us tonight, cry out for Evyatar and for the other 49 hostages who can't endure another second in this hell!
8:00 PM at Hostages Square and in dozens of… pic.twitter.com/TEnHpmxLSQ
In that regard, White House envoy Steve Witkoff told hostages' families on Saturday that US President Donald Trump wanted to "shift" the Gaza policy towards a comprehensive deal to end the war and have all hostages returned to their homes, according to a statement by the families and recordings from the meeting, cited in an Axios report.
"President Trump now believes that everybody ought to come home at once—no piecemeal deals. That doesn't work," Witkoff said.
"Now we have to get all the 20 [live hostages] at the same time ... we think that we have to shift this negotiation to all or nothing so that everybody comes home. We think it is going to be successful and we have a plan around it," he added.
Witkoff's comments were made during a visit to Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where families of the hostages—as well as hundreds of supporters—rallied after Hamas released painful footage of David and another hostage named Rom Braslavski. David had been kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova festival on October 7, 2023.
