Brother of Hamas hostage Evyatar David speaks of ‘emotional torture' family endures as doctors give just him ‘days' to live

Sky News AU

a day ago

The brother of Hamas hostage Evyatar David has told Sky News of the 'emotional torture' his family has endured since his younger sibling was taken prisoner almost two years ago, with doctors saying he has just 'days' to live.
The brother of Hamas hostage Evyatar David has spoken of the 'emotional torture' his family has endured since his younger sibling was taken prisoner almost two years ago, with doctors saying he has just 'days' to live.
Speaking to Sky News Australia on Tuesday evening, Ilay David said he thought watching other hostages being released and separated from the others was the 'peak of cruelty' before Hamas released footage of his emaciated brother.
Over the weekend, Evyatar David's family gave permission for a video of him, emaciated and weak, digging his own grave in the tunnels beneath Gaza to be used to raise awareness about the treatment of hostages.
'We couldn't recognise him,' Ilay David told Sky News host Sharri Markson.
'We could barely recognise his voice. He can barely move. He's so weak. He's experiencing tremendous pain all over the body.
'Doctors are saying it's a matter of days, it's a matter of days, he needs to be taken care of right now.'
The hostage's brother said his family believed there was another captive with Evyatar under the same circumstances and appealed for them to both be rescued and fed.
He said when Hamas released the video of his younger brother, his mother could not watch it.
'My mum couldn't watch. My father had to watch,' Mr David said.
'He had to have a sign of life from his son, no matter how horrible it is. My mum, she only cries. My father can't sleep after he saw those images.
'Evyatar is such a sweet, kind boy… He plays music, has the soul of a musician and he's such a good son to my parents. I actually learned from him, he's my younger brother, but I actually learn from him to be a better son.
'Seeing them shattered like that, my parents, breaks my heart every day.'
Mr David told Markson the 'chubby hand' in the video giving Evyatar a can of beans belonged to Hamas terrorists who were giving him a 'prize' for telling the cameras what he was supposed to say. — Israel ישראל (@Israel) August 2, 2025
'It only means one thing, the terrorists are eating well. They have proper food next door. Every time guys are in this dungeon underground right next to them, their captors are healthy and fat,' he said.
'They are that cruel, that twisted, their minds are so twisted that they use human beings as starvation experiments only to try and inflict propaganda on us and on the world.'
Mr David said world leaders should stand up and demand Hamas to unconditionally release the hostages, saying the militants were to blame for the hunger of both Palestinians and the October 7 captives alike.
' They are the ones to starve their own people. They choose who lives, who dies and they are right now using my brother as a bargaining chip, as a pawn in this game,' he said.
'He's dying because of that, and the hostages are dying, and if we will not act now, it will be too late.'
Mr David said his brother must be in 'such tremendous pain' all over his body as one by one his bodily systems arrived on the brink of 'collapse'.
He said 600 days of torture and torment would make it 'easy' to give up, but his brother was still alive through hope.
'He knows that he's coming back home eventually,' Mr David said.
'I know that he manifests the same thing that I manifest. I know he's dreaming about coming back, hugging my parents, hearing my younger sister's secrets, and playing music with me, as we used to do.'