‘He looks half the man he was': meeting the brother of an Israeli hostage shown pleading for release in Hamas video

The Guardian

28-02-2025

When Hamas brought two captive Israelis to watch Saturday's release of six of their fellow hostages and then beg for their own liberation, it was purposely jabbing at a deeply painful divide in Israeli society.
Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal were 22-year-old best friends when they were kidnapped at the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. The Hamas video showed them sitting in a minivan watching the propaganda-laden handover ceremony, and then turning to the cameras to plead with Benjamin Netanyahu to agree a second phase in the current ceasefire, which would allow the release of all the remaining 59 hostages (only a minority of whom are thought to be still alive).
The majority of Israelis and international public opinion, the Trump administration included, want a second phase but, as conceived in the original truce agreement in January, that would involve elements including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which could bring down Netanyahu's rightwing coalition.
An Israeli delegation at talks in Cairo on Friday is reported to have called for a six-week extension to the first phase of the ceasefire. According to Egyptian media, it would involve further hostage releases in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians held in Israeli jails, but it would postpone military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Hamas is said to have rejected the proposal.
For Ilay David, Evyatar's older brother, the video was confirmation of an emotional certainty that the family had held on for the 16 months since the outbreak of war: he was alive.
'It was the first ever sign of life,' Ilay said. 'We had this feeling that he's OK and he's surviving. I had no doubt, but seeing it was amazing. For me, it was like oxygen.'
For his family, the joy of seeing Evyatar alive was marred by his appearance, and the intense suffering it implied.
'He looks half the man he was. He looks starved. He looks exhausted,' Ilay said. He has talked to released hostages who were held with Evyatar for months and heard about the conditions in narrow, airless tunnels, with starvation rations – 'a pitta a day and two spoonfuls of cheese'.
On the other hand, it was a comfort to see Evyatar with his childhood friend, Gilboa-Dalal, with whom he had gone to the music festival, and to know he was not completely alone.
Hamas knew very well what it was doing with the video. Seeing these two young men pleading for peace and their release has underlined the human costs Israel will suffer if it goes back to war.
Ilay was already spending most of his time campaigning for the ceasefire but said the video had brought even greater urgency to his family's mission.
'It only drives us to do more, to speak with more people, to keep lobbying, to make him more visible – as visible as we can make him,' he said.
He recently returned from a lobbying trip to Washington where he met senators, state department officials and, most importantly, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East who has publicly insisted that the ceasefire continue until all the hostages are free and the bodies of the dead handed over.
'He will try with all of his might to bring back all the hostages, whether it's second phase or another phase or another kind of deal,' Ilay said. 'He's a warm person, very decent, very honest, and Trump relies on him.'
All of that does not necessarily mean that Netanyahu will follow Witkoff's guidance, especially if it could break his coalition apart and result in early elections. The Israel Defense Forces are due to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border eight days into the second phase of the ceasefire. It is a strip of land that Netanyahu has previously deemed to be vital to Israeli security, and abandoning it could well cause a coalition crisis.
'The IDF retreat from Philadelphi – that's a big deal. It's a big asset to Israel, so I don't know what will happen,' Ilay said. 'We understand that these are critical moments. Decisions are being made right now.'
As for Netanyahu, he said: 'I count on him to bring the hostages back and I think he understands that to bring them back is … something which goes to the core of the Jewish nation and the ethos of the Israeli state – solidarity and leaving no one behind.'
As well as visiting the Trump administration, Ilay has been touring the West Bank, visiting militant settlers, the constituency most adamantly opposed to the ceasefire, seeking to engage anyone who will talk to him.
'We are right now in this weird moment where a lot depends on the pressure that the families can put on the government but also on the public,' he said. 'We try to do whatever we can to speak to politicians and with public leaders and military veterans – anyone who has any influence.'