"A Million Punches to the Stomach": Sister Pleads After Hamas Video of Hostage Evyatar David
Hamas’s release of a video showing hostage Evyatar David in poor condition prompted his sister to plead for privacy and former hostages to expose the group’s cruel conditions and aid theft. The footage has fueled urgent calls to resume negotiations to save the remaining 50 hostages amid ongoing conflict.
On August 1, 2025, Hamas released a distressing video showing Israeli hostage Evyatar David in dire physical condition, prompting a heartfelt plea from his sister, Ye’ela David, on Instagram. “Anyone who saw the video knows the severity and Evyatar’s physical condition, which hit me like a million punches to the stomach,” she wrote, urging the public not to share the footage, as their mother and brother had not yet seen it. “They shouldn’t come across an image from there by accident. I’m asking not to publish images from the video until the family and I decide to release it.” The video, part of Hamas’s propaganda efforts, included images of starving children, which former hostages denounced as manipulative lies.
Omer Wenkert, held with Evyatar for 250 of his 505 days in captivity, described the grim tunnel conditions: “That’s what the tunnels we lived in looked like. Those are the conditions - everything is narrow, low, small. You saw the hunger, you saw his physical condition.” He refuted Hamas’s starvation narrative, stating, “I lost 37 kilos in captivity, while I didn’t see my captors lose even one. The starving children in Gaza, it’s not Israel starving them; it’s Hamas stealing their supplies.”
Former hostage Tal Shoham, also held with Evyatar, revealed, “Just a few meters away, there is an iron door. Behind that door, sit Hamas terrorists, eating plenty of food, plenty of vegetables, meat, fish, and fruits. They have everything that they need, which they stole from the humanitarian aid.” With 50 hostages still held and 60,000 Palestinian deaths reported since October 2023, per Gaza’s Health Ministry, the video intensified calls for action. Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X, “Let every government minister watch Evyatar’s video today before going to bed and try to fall asleep while thinking of Evyatar trying to survive in a tunnel.” Idit Ohel, mother of injured hostage Alon Ohel, pleaded, “The video of Evyatar David is an SOS call to resume negotiations and save the hostages. Alon is severely injured, has lost an eye, and is in immediate mortal danger. I cry out as a mother - end this nightmare.”