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Human Rights Voices
While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.
U.N. Obsession with Condemning
Israel Instead
Hamas-held hostage Evyatar David filmed digging what he says he fears will be his own grave in a tunnel in Gaza, in a Hamas propaganda video that his family cleared for publication on August 2, 2025.
Palestinian Authority/Gaza, August 27, 2026
Ex-hostage Evyatar David says he still wakes with nightmares, almost a year after return
Original source
Former hostage Evyatar David, who was among the last captives released by the terror group in an October 2025 ceasefire deal, told CNN he still wakes up with nightmares almost a year after his return.
“It can surprise me any time, one hour I can be fine and happy, and next I can remember something from captivity, and get flashbacks. I wake up at night with nightmares, and it affects me all day after that. It’s very unstable and random,” he said, in remarks aired on Wednesday.
In the interview, David’s first with an international outlet, the 25-year-old, whom invading terrorists kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, recalled being made to dig his own grave in a Hamas propaganda video last summer.
“You can see my body, I could barely move, when I tried to dig the grave, just to hold the shovel was almost impossible, probably the hardest physical thing I ever did,” he said.
David said that he and fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal “didn’t eat for three months.”
“I could [hear the Hamas guards] laughing, eating cakes and drinking tea, like there is nobody walking next to them that looks like a skeleton,” David told CNN.
He said his captors were well-fed, and had access to air conditioning and television, while they starved their hostages.
“They told us there is no food in Gaza, but we knew it’s not true, because we always saw the terrorists – they were fat and had muscles. We knew they were lying and starving us,” he
In the interview, David also said the Israeli government was not providing enough help to ex-hostages – a complaint echoed by other freed captives in the time since their return from Gaza.
“I hope the next government will do better; I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I trust they will do better,” he said, explaining that he has covered his financial shortfall through a crowdfunding campaign.
Last November, about a month after the return of David and the final remaining hostages in a US-brokered ceasefire deal, the coalition voted down a bill that would have earmarked NIS 4 million ($1.2 million) for immediate financial assistance to the freed captives. The vote was panned by the opposition.
The CNN interview was David’s first with an international outlet, though he spoke to Channel 12’s “Uvda” program earlier this summer.
He and his brother will be traveling to the US next month to speak about their experience, the ex-hostage told CNN.
Asked whether he’s hopeful about a Hamas-free future for Gaza, amid a US-backed peace effort, David said: “No, I don’t think it’s possible.”
“They’re pure ideology, they just want the whole land,” he said. “They don’t really care about Gaza. I could see it in their eyes.”
He stressed: “I never saw something like that. It’s scary, really.”
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