WATCH: Israel to UN - Your Silence Is Complicity in Hamas’s Crimes
Ilay David, brother of Gaza hostage Evyatar David, delivered a heart-wrenching plea to the UN Security Council, warning that emaciated hostages face imminent death due to Hamas’s deliberate starvation tactics. Amid muted global response, Israeli officials and families demand urgent action to secure the release of the remaining 49 captives.
In an emotional address to the United Nations Security Council on August 5, 2025, Ilay David, brother of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, pleaded for immediate global action to save his brother and 48 other hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Speaking remotely during a session convened by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Ilay described the dire conditions revealed in recent Hamas videos, showing Evyatar and Rom Braslavski emaciated and frail. “They only have days left. Days!” Ilay told delegates. “My brother weighs about 40 kilograms. He looks like a skeleton. He could barely move or speak. He was forced to dig his own grave.” The gut-wrenching footage, released over the weekend, depicts Evyatar, abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, in a tunnel, saying, “I haven’t eaten for days... I barely got drinking water.”
Ilay accused Hamas of deliberate starvation, noting a terrorist’s “well-fed hand” in the video, “thicker than my brother’s leg,” highlighting the captors’ access to food. “Hamas has food. The hostages do not,” he said. “They are deliberately being starved. It is a war crime, an act of systematic, calculated cruelty.” He recounted a February incident where Hamas forced Evyatar and Guy Gilboa-Dalal to watch other hostages’ release before returning them to tunnels, calling it a new low in cruelty. “Tal Shoham and Omer Wenkert, held with my brother, said the terrorists relished their food loudly while denying hostages any,” Ilay added. “This is a weapon of war.”
Sa’ar condemned the UN’s “complicity through silence,” stating, “I came here because our hostages are being tortured in tunnels while the world looks away. Evyatar was forced to dig his own grave. It is diabolical.” He criticized nations pushing for Palestinian state recognition, saying, “They gave Hamas free gifts and an incentive to continue this war.” Ilay echoed this, urging, “The soul of humanity is being scarred by Hamas’s barbaric actions... Act now. Before it is too late. Save Evyatar David. Bring my little brother home.”
French President Emmanuel Macron called Hamas’s actions “appalling cruelty,” while UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy labeled the videos “sickening,” though tying it to ceasefire demands. Of 251 hostages taken, 49 remain, with 20 believed alive, per IDF estimates. Protests in Tel Aviv, with 10,000 rallying on August 2, reflect growing frustration, as ceasefire talks stalled in Doha last week.