Israeli hostage shown in Hamas video is starved, tortured and ‘a broken man,’ cousin says

Geoff Bennett:

This weekend, Hamas released a haunting video of 24-year-old Evyatar David, an Israeli hostage abducted from the Nova Music Festival during the October 7 terror attacks.

In the video, which is undated, David appears so emaciated and so pale, his own father said he didn't recognize him. David was filmed by his Hamas captors as he was forced to dig his own grave in a cramped underground tunnel. We are not showing the video since David's family says he's the victim of a vile propaganda campaign. They're pleading for urgent international intervention.

His cousin, Matan Eshet, joins us now from Tel Aviv.

Thank you for being with us. And I am deeply sorry for the pain and the anguish your family is enduring.

I read that your family believes that Evyatar only has a few days left to live in that condition. Have you heard anything else about his health and condition since the release of that video?

Matan Eshet, Cousin of Evyatar David: We have not heard anything new since the release of the video.

We only heard estimations being made by physicians and nutritionists saying he looks like he lost more than 50 percent of his body weight, saying that he has more days to be saved, not talking about the condition that other hostages who came back that were with him said that he already had more than 150 days ago.

Geoff Bennett:

He was shown with another hostage, 21-year-old Rom Braslavsky. They appear, as we said, emaciated, weak. They're begging for their lives, begging to be freed.

What went through your mind as you watched that video?

Matan Eshet:

First of all, it was terrible.

I was terrified to see my cousin like that. He barely looks like my own cousin. He doesn't even sound like him. And I could see in his eyes the loss of hope and the fact that they actually managed to break his spirit using these horrible terror tactics of starving him deliberately, of giving him no stimulate, of having no sun, of having no hope of being survived.

I saw a broken man.

Geoff Bennett:

I know that Evyatar's brother met with President Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, during Witkoff's recent trip to the region. What message did he receive?

Matan Eshet:

We did receive the message that the U.S. government and the Trump administrations are still trying to make sure that the hostage — the hostages deal will be brought forward.

They aren't sure and they couldn't really talk about the stages of the negotiations, but we are really hopeful that, after this horrible video, it will push the world leaders to put pressure on Hamas to make sure that they agree to a full deal that will return all of the hostages.

Geoff Bennett:

Has the Israeli government contacted your family? And if so, what did they say?

Matan Eshet:

I'm not aware of contact being made, but, for us, it doesn't matter. The biggest thing that they could say is (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) but in the end what we need is to make sure that everybody will understand Evyatar's situation and that he will be brought back home as soon as possible, get some food and some medical attention that he desperately, desperately needs.

Geoff Bennett:

By releasing that propaganda video of starving hostages, Hamas is clearly trying to capitalize on the international furor over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel is accused of restricting aid. Hamas is accused of hoarding and diverting that aid that gets through. How do those competing narratives complicate the effort to secure the release of the hostages?

Matan Eshet:

I think it gives Hamas power by seeing that the world believes their propaganda, saying there is not enough humanitarian aid getting into the Gaza Strip, while neglecting the effect of Hamas of taking the humanitarian aid, of not giving it to the people, taking it to their own terrorist people, and to make sure that they have more profit.

So, they take the humanitarian aid and take it to their own tunnels or sell it again on the street in extremely high prices, and then they just cause the people to starve again. You can see in the video that the terrorist's hand is so much bigger compared to Evyatar.

So, even if they don't have the luxurious amount of food that the Western world have, they are still deliberately malnourishing and not giving and starving Evyatar and all of the other hostages.

Geoff Bennett:

You said that you can see in the video that the terrorist's hand is much larger than your cousins. Is that right?

Matan Eshet:

Yes. Yes. You can see.

There's a moment where they cynically show how the terrorist is, like, sharing his own food, giving Evyatar some canned food. And you can see in that moment that the terrorist's hand is big, is muscular. He looks like he has been outside. He has normal tan.

And I think his forearm is the same with — as Evyatar's legs, basically.

Geoff Bennett:

Which should the world know about your cousin, Evyatar?

Matan Eshet:

Before October 7, Evyatar was the most beautiful soul you could ever meet. He loves music and he loved his friends. And he's like the mitigator in his home.

But, right now, Evyatar is being treated like less than a human being in a terror tunnel being physically and mentally tortured, being starved, being beaten, being made to dig his own grave. Evyatar is the missing piece of the puzzle for our family. Every person has this family member that fits just right into the family, make sure everything goes smoothly as it should be.

And this is the pieces we're missing right now.

Geoff Bennett:

The missing piece of the puzzle, that's a great way to describe your cousin.

Matan Eshet, thank you again for being with us. We appreciate it.

Matan Eshet:

Thank you for having me.