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Freed in October 2025 after 738 days in captivity in Gaza, Evyatar David had been filmed by Hamas digging his own grave. He discussed the psychological scars left by his ordeal in an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
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The video deeply moved Israelis in the summer of 2025. In a tunnel beneath Gaza, Evyatar David, one of the 250 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, appeared digging with a shovel, filmed by members of the Islamist organization. "I am digging my own grave. With every day that passes, I grow weaker," said the 24-year-old, his face gaunt and bones showing, emaciated to an extreme degree.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, August 26, David recounted that his captors compared his physical condition to that of another hostage, and chose him because he appeared more unwell. "We were in extreme starvation. Everything I'm saying there and doing, they tell me what to do," he said. "But of course, how you can see my body, it's totally true, I couldn't, I could barely move, could barely do anything. When I tried to dig the grave, just to hold the shovel, it was almost impossible. Probably the hardest physical thing I ever did."
The effort was so great that he nearly fainted. "I can hear them laughing and eating cakes and drinking tea, like there is no person that walks next to them and looks like a skeleton. But this is how they are, they are very cruel," said the young man, who was abducted while attending the Nova Festival near the Palestinian enclave on the morning of October 7, 2023, where 396 festival-goers were killed and 44 kidnapped among just over 3,000 people present.
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