In an emotional appeal to the UN Security Council, Ilay David, the brother of Evyatar David, an Israeli hostage whom Hamas filmed digging his own grave, called for urgent help to save his brother.
By Rachel Avraham
Ilay David, the brother of Evyatar David, the hostage who was filmed being forced to dig his own grave in a video published by the Hamas terrorist organization, addressed the UN Security Council session on the plight of the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, Arutz Sheva reported.
“Mr. President, members of the Security Council, distinguished delegates, my name is Ilay David, and I am speaking before you today not as a politician or a diplomat, but as a brother,” he proclaimed. “My younger brother, Evyatar David along with Guy Gilboa Dalal and 48 other hostages are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.”
According to Arutz Sheva, he described his brother, saying: “Evyatar is the kindest person I know. I learn from him how to be a better son. He is shy, but full of life He has the soul of a musician. He has played the guitar since he was 10, and we play music together every week.”
“Evyatar was kidnapped from the Nova music festival at the age of 22,” David stressed. “He went there to celebrate life, to dance, to enjoy the music he loves. Evyatar is a gifted guitarist. Music is part of who he is.”
However, what was supposed to be a music festival celebrating life turned into the gravest humanitarian disaster to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust: “Since that day, my brother and the other hostages have endured an unimaginable nightmare. This is not just a figure of speech, their lives are truly hanging by a thread. We now know from medical reports and other indications that Evyatar and Guy are on the brink of death. They may only have days left to live. DAYS. That is how urgent this is. They have each lost nearly half of their body weight. My little brother now weighs only around forty kilograms. That’s just around ninety pounds.”
“The world has heard about the atrocities of Hamas of October 7th and in the 22 months since, but what is happening to Evyatar and Guy is an act of calculated and depraved cruelty that defies human comprehension,” he stressed. “We have heard the testimonies, from those who were released from Hamas’ tunnels, and every account makes our fears worse. When your brother, your son, your father, your partner is being held in Gaza, there is never good news. The only thing you can hold onto is that they might still be alive. But even that hope is fading. Because the truth is, we don’t know how much time they have left.”
According to Arutz Sheva, David described the cruel way Hamas has used his brother for propaganda purposes: “Five months ago, on February 22nd, we received what we thought at the time was the cruelest possible emotional torment to Evyatar. In February, after 500 days in captivity, Hamas broadcasted Evyatar and Guy. They were brought out of the tunnels. Hamas forced them to watch their fellow captives being released. Then, Evyatar and Guy were sent back into the dark tunnels. We thought, at the time, that this was the pinnacle of evil.”
“But then, just this past weekend, we received a new video from hell. We were reminded just how much more cruel and inhuman Hamas and its sick partners can be. My brother was a living skeleton. He had barely the strength to move or speak, his voice barely recognizable. In that video, my little brother was forced to speak to the world and then actively begin to dig his own grave inside a filthy, dark, tunnel in Gaza,” he said.
“My mother and I could not even bring ourselves to watch it. We knew that if we did, we would be unable to function. My father and my sister, however, felt they had to see him, to hear his voice, to feel him somehow. Now, those images haunt them. My father cannot sleep, and my mother has not stopped crying ever since. What would you do if – God forbid – it was your son, brother, partner, father? We are here because we and the other hostage families cannot wait any longer. We need to reunite with them, to hug them and to feel them close. There are still fathers whose children are waiting for their return. We are all waiting for their return,” he added.
According to the Times of Israel, David calls on the international community to demand and take action for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages, call for humanitarian aid for the hostages, and “recognize that this is a matter of life and death requiring urgent medical intervention.”
“The very soul of humanity is being scarred by Hamas’s barbaric actions. We, the family of Evyatar, refuse to give up hope. We are weeping and suffering, but we are also fighting,” David says.
Photo from NBCNews: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EWlH0hB84WM
