Evyatar David is skin and bones. He is 24 years old; he was 22 when he was kidnapped 668 days ago by Hamas at the Nova music festival.
Mainstream Western media have given little or no coverage to the video released by Hamas, in which David is forced to dig his own grave in a Gaza tunnel, barely able to hold the shovel, while the other hostage, Rom Braslavski, also emaciated, is shown writhing in agony from hunger. His captors seem to revel in his physical and mental anguish.
Two hostages walled up alive in Gaza’s catacombs built with UN funds.
“The silence about the deliberate starvation of Israeli hostages by Hamas and Islamic Jihad is as deafening as its hypocrisy.”
In a grim imitation of their Nazi heroes, who forced Jews to dig graves before shooting them—as in Babi Yar—Hamas released a video showing an incredibly emaciated Israeli hostage digging a grave.
A few days ago, the New York Times featured an extremely thin Palestinian Arab child, Mohammed al-Matouq, on its front page, using it as a symbol of what the paper called “mass starvation” in Gaza. Days later, the Times published a correction, acknowledging that the child suffered from a “rare genetic disorder.” The photo was clipped to omit his healthy, well-fed brother. NBC, the Guardian, and the BBC did not, however, issue a correction.
No photos of David or Braslavski appeared on the front page of the New York Times, despite the tragic image and true storyline that would have made it a natural headline. There was, however, a photo of aid airdropped into Gaza from Jordan.
As New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote, “The silence about the deliberate starvation of Israeli hostages by Hamas and Islamic Jihad is as deafening as its hypocrisy.”
The BBC mentioned the video of the skeletal Israeli hostages only briefly. The Guardian highlighted allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, while its homepage omitted any reference to the videos. Sky News also focused on the deaths in Gaza, with a sidebar image showing David in one of the videos. CNN‘s main headline focused on political discussions about the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
Further down the website, an article appeared titled “Families of Israeli Hostages Stage Emergency Protest After Gaza Gunmen Release Videos Showing Skeletal Prisoners.” Only the New York Post featured Evyatar as its cover story: “Starved of Humanity.” It goes without saying that no Italian newspaper had a photo of Evyatar David on its front page, as has been the case for over a month in Gaza.
Suddenly, you can hate without shame—because it’s “for Palestine.” And so you can hate even a skeletal Jew.
Antisemitism is considered despicable (at least until recently), so hatred found a more acceptable form: anti-Zionism. We no longer hate Jews; we hate the collective Jew. This rhetorical transmutation, which enables all sorts of excesses, is all the more effective because it gives a clean conscience to those who indulge in it. Suddenly, you can hate without shame—because it’s “for Palestine.” And so you can hate even a skeletal Jew.
Auschwitz survivor Naftali Fürst said the images of David and Braslavski took him back in time: “Straight to the camps. I survived Auschwitz. I know hunger. I know fear and horror.”
Fürst recalled meeting released hostage Eli Sharabi earlier this year at the March of the Living in Auschwitz. “When I saw him, I was overwhelmed. I looked at him and remembered how I looked after 1,033 days of captivity. We didn’t need words: we understood each other.”
It’s the Western media that continues to pretend not to understand what’s going on in Gaza.
Published originally on August 5 2025.
