‘Hamas tried to ruin our families’ lives’ – Ex-hostage describes Hamas torture, mockery during his captivity

Evyatar David says Hamas deliberately starved him, subjected him to psychological abuse and forced him to dig what captors told him would be his own grave during more than two years held in Gaza.

By World Israel News Staff

Former Israeli hostage Evyatar David appeared in his first interview with international media on Wednesday, describing the starvation, psychological abuse and fear he endured during more than two years in Hamas captivity, including being forced to dig what his captors told him would be his own grave.

David, who was abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, spoke with CNN earlier this month about his ordeal, though the conversation was only published this week.

He said his captors deliberately deprived him and other hostages of food, with conditions becoming particularly severe during the final months before Hamas released an August 2025 propaganda video showing him severely emaciated inside a Gaza tunnel.

David said the psychological effects of starvation went beyond the constant physical hunger, leaving the hostages uncertain whether they would receive another meal at all.

The captors claimed there was no food available, according to David, but he said their own appearance and behavior convinced the hostages otherwise.

“We knew they were lying and starving us,” David said.

David said that shortly before the propaganda video was filmed, a Hamas commander photographed him and fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal and compared their physical condition. David, who appeared more severely malnourished, was selected to appear in the footage.

The video showed David holding a shovel in a narrow tunnel and documenting the tiny amounts of food he had received. David now says the production itself was directed by his captors, even though the starvation visible in the footage was genuine.

“It’s all staged, but it relies on the truth — we didn’t eat for three months,” he said.

David recalled being taken through another section of the tunnel network before filming and smelling tea and cakes being consumed by his captors as he passed.

“A skeleton was walking beside them while they indulged in cake and tea,” he recalled in an earlier interview.

The guards then brought him to a partially dug pit and handed him a shovel.

“This is going to be your grave,” David recalled them telling him.

Already extremely weak from hunger, David said simply holding the shovel was difficult. He nevertheless dug the pit while confronting the possibility that his captors intended to kill him or that he would die from starvation and eventually be buried there.

The images became some of the most widely circulated footage of the hostages during the war, drawing international condemnation and renewed calls for their release.

David and Gilboa-Dalal, childhood friends who were abducted together from the Nova festival, spent much of their captivity together. Two other friends who attended the festival with them, Ron Tzarfati and Idan Haramaty, were killed during the October 7 attack.

David was ultimately freed on October 13, 2025, alongside the remaining living Israeli hostages under the ceasefire agreement that ended his 738 days in Gaza. He was transferred to Beilinson Hospital, where he began treatment and rehabilitation following prolonged captivity and severe malnutrition.

Nearly a year later, David said the psychological consequences remain unpredictable.

“I wake up at night with nightmares,” he said, adding that memories of captivity can suddenly return even during otherwise happy moments. “It’s very unstable and random.”

Music has become one of the ways David has attempted to rebuild his life. Earlier this month, he played guitar alongside his sister at the wedding of his older brother Ilai, who had spent the years of David’s captivity campaigning publicly for his release.

David has also pointed to the marriages and celebrations of other former hostages as evidence that Hamas failed to destroy the lives of its captives and their families.

“They tried to ruin our lives and our families’ lives and eventually they didn’t manage to ruin everything,” he said.

Despite his continuing struggle with post-traumatic stress, David said he is increasingly willing to speak publicly about what happened to him, arguing that testimony from survivors is necessary to preserve the record of the hostages’ treatment.

“The world must know what happened and cannot forget,” he said.