Brother of hostage Evyatar David tells UN that silence in face of Hamas cruelty ‘is complicity’

The brother of Hamas hostage Evyatar David tells the United Nations Security Council that it is responsible for the hostages’ suffering in Gaza.

“Every moment of delay is a step closer to a final, tragic outcome. We all have a responsibility. To the leaders of the world, to every member of this council, and to the global community: your silence in the face of this monstrous cruelty is complicity,” Ilay David says.

David speaks via video to a Security Council hearing focused on the Gaza war and the hostages.

Over the weekend, Hamas released a video showing an emaciated Evyatar David digging his own grave.

In his speech to the Security Council, David describes his close relationship with his brother, his brother’s love of music, and the family’s anguish in his absence.

Since the release of the video over the weekend, “My father cannot sleep and my mother has not stopped crying,” David says. He adds that, according to the testimony of released hostages, Hamas is deliberately starving the hostages as a form of torture, despite the terror group’s members having an ample supply of food.

David calls on the international community to demand and take action for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages, call for humanitarian aid for the hostages, and “recognize that this is a matter of life and death requiring urgent medical intervention.”

“The very soul of humanity is being scarred by Hamas’s barbaric actions. We, the family of Evyatar, refuse to give up hope. We are weeping and suffering, but we are also fighting,” David says.