Hope and Anguish from Family of Hostage Evyatar David

IFCJ Canada  |  August 18, 2025

Since his cousin, Evyatar David, was kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova Music Festival massacre on October 7, Matan Eshet spends most of his time at his aunt and uncle’s house. He’s taken on the role of family pillar, making sure David’s family continue eating and attending meetings and rallies despite their ongoing anguish. This anguish only intensified when Hamas released a propaganda video this week showing an emaciated but alive David in captivity, The Times of Israel reports.

“They can tell me his medical condition and statistics, but he’s in such bad shape that I can see with my own eyes,” said Eshet, “I don’t need a degree to tell me that he’s on the brink of death.”

In the Hamas video of Evyatar David, published after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released similarly harrowing propaganda footage of (Ram) Braslavski, David is shown to be skeletal and forced to dig what he said he feared was his own grave.

“I was broken when I saw that video,” said Eshet, “My cousin doesn’t look or sound like himself. He looks like a copy of a copy of a copy of Evyatar.”

While he doesn’t go to sleep until 4 a.m., to exhaust himself from dreaming about his cousin, Eshet and David’s family continue to try and redirect their anguish and anger into hope and awareness. According to Eshet, they are looking for help by rallying pressure around the world so that David can get food, medical attention, and a way out.

Eshet and David’s family also wasted no time in getting in contact with former hostages Omer Wenkert and Tal Shoham, who were released in February 2025 during the ceasefire. Wenkert and Shoham gave detailed accounts on what it was like in Hamas captivity as well as how David was doing. Hamas had also released a video at that time showing David and his best friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was kidnapped along with him on October 7.

“I see it every time I close my eyes,” said Eshet, “We need the world, the people of the world to help us make sure Evyatar comes back right now. We need to save this kid.”

October 7 isn’t just one of many scars in Israeli and Jewish history, but a still open wound that has yet to start healing. Families in Israel need support now more than ever as some hostages still haven’t been returned home. We ask that you continue to pray for David and the hostages that have yet to be returned home.