Ilay David, brother of hostage Evyatar, speaks out about the Hamas 'video from hell'

At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday evening, Ilay David, the brother of hostage Evyatar David, warned that his brother only had “days left to live.”

The UNSC convened to discuss the hostage situation after a Hamas propaganda video showing Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski was released by Hamas. The hostages appeared starved and skeletal, with Evyatar forced to give a message pressuring Israel while digging his own grave.

“We know from medical reports that Evyatar, Guy, and the others are on the brink of death. They only have days left. Days! That’s how urgent this is,” Ilay implored the members of the UNSC, according to Ynet News. “Each of them has lost half their body weight. My brother weighs about 40 kilograms,” he said.

“The world has heard about Hamas’ atrocities on October 7 and in the 20 months since, but what’s happening to Evyatar and Guy is an act of calculated, deliberate cruelty. We’ve heard the testimonies of returned hostages. When your brother, son or partner is being held in Gaza, there is no good news. Even the hope that he’s alive is fading. We don’t know how much longer they’ll survive,” he added.

Ilay David reminded the UNSC that the hostages were not only being starved, but psychologically tortured.

“In February, after 500 days in captivity, Hamas took Evyatar and Guy out of the tunnels and forced them to watch their fellow hostages being released – then sent them back into the darkness. We thought that was the height of evil. But this past weekend, we received another video from hell, a chilling reminder of the cruelty of Hamas and its sick partners. My brother looked like a skeleton. He could barely move or speak. We didn’t even recognize his voice.”

“In the video, he was forced to speak to the world and then to dig his own grave in a filthy tunnel in Gaza.”

The horrific footage is hard to watch for most, but unbearable for family members. “My mother and I couldn’t summon the strength to watch it,” Ilay told the UNSC.

“We knew if we did, we wouldn’t be able to function. My father and sister chose to watch it, trying to feel him somehow – and now they’re haunted by the images. “My father cannot sleep and my mother has not stopped crying. What would you do if it were your son, your brother or your father?”

Pointing out the clear contrast between the emaciated hostages and the apparently healthy terrorists, Ilay continued, “In the latest video, another chilling detail emerged: you can see the fat hand of a terrorist entering the frame – the hand of his captor. It’s visibly thicker than my brother’s leg. Hamas showed what we’ve known for months: the terrorists have plenty of food. The only ones starving are my brother and the 49 other hostages.”

Footage has emerged of Hamas terrorists bragging about the wide variety of fresh food they have in the tunnels, even while most of their own people are surviving on one basic meal a day, and the hostages are starving to the brink of death.

“From testimonies, we know the terrorists are in the next room. They are choosing to starve them as part of a sick campaign, using hunger as a weapon of war. This is a humanitarian crisis – yet, no one here, or in other UN bodies, is talking about it. Aid flows into Gaza, but the hostages are denied even the most basic food. They haven’t received a single crumb.”

“Everyone bears responsibility – the world’s leaders, every member of this Council, and the international community,” Ilay concluded. “Your silence is the face of this monstrous cruelty – it is complicity. I beg you: don’t let them die.”