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Hamas recently released a horrifying video, taken last February, of a gaunt hostage, Evyatar David, a as part of an effort to encourage Israelis to take to the streets to demand that the Israeli government to do more to free the hostages, including unilaterally stopping the war in Gaza. He is shown in the narrow tunnel where he has been living for hundreds of days, deliberately starved to the point of near-death — he may have died since the video was made — marking on a calendar hung on the wall the days when he received “no food” (ein ochel), and then is seen digging a ditch in the tunnel which he has been told will be his burial place. He’s digging his own grave.

Robert Spencer has written about Evyatar David here and here, and more on this hostage, whose horrifying appearance will no doubt have the desired effect of producing more frenzied calls inside Israel to “bring them home now,” can be found here: “WATCH: Hamas forces hostage Evyatar David to dig own grave, count days without food,” by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, August 3, 2025:

Hamas published a video of hostage Evyatar David on Friday evening, which was later cleared for publication by the David Family.

In the video, David can be seen crossing off days on a makeshift calendar hung up on the side of an underground Gaza tunnel.

Clips of a clearly emaciated David are interspliced with those of starving Palestinian children.

David is also shirtless, and all of his ribs can be seen. He appears to have been held alone for months.

Israeli hostage Evyatar David in a Hamas propaganda video, August 1, 2025. (VIA TELEGRAM/SECTION 27A)
His biceps look to be the same size as his forearms.
The propaganda video also includes clips of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir saying that no aid should enter Gaza.

It ends with a black screen that reads “They eat what we eat. They drink what we drink.”…

No, the hostages do not eat or drink what their captors eat and drink. They are given much less both food and water, just enough to stay alive in an emaciated state, one step away from being starved to death.

Take a look at the photograph at the top of this article. It shows emaciated Evyatar David being held captive in a dark tunnel under Gaza last February. Has he since died of starvation and torture and buried in the grave Hamas made him dig? Or is he still clinging to life, like the other hostages who have been allowed — just — to survive?