Israel Reels on October 666

Hostages condition is perilous and Steven Witkoff shows up

At 5:02 pm today the Hostage Family Forum released the following statement on behalf of the family of 24-year-old Hamas hostage, Evyatar David:

We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza - a living skeleton, buried alive.

Our son has only a few days left to live in his current condition.

Hamas is using our son as a live experiment in a vile hunger campaign.

The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen. He is being starved purely to serve Hamas’s propaganda.

Israel and the international community must oppose Hamas’s cruelty and ensure that our Evyatar immediately receives proper nutrition.

The intentional starvation, torture, and abuse of Evyatar for propaganda purposes violate even the lowest standards of humanitarian law and basic human decency.

The humanitarian aid that the world, together with Israel, provides to the residents of Gaza must also reach Evyatar.

Israel and the international community must not remain silent or turn a blind eye to those who are deliberately starved as part of Hamas’s hunger campaign.

There is no limit to this cruelty.

We call upon the Government of Israel, the people of Israel, nations of the world, and the President of the United States to do everything possible to save Evyatar from death and ensure, by any means necessary, that he urgently receives food and medical care.

We call on all countries and international organizations: do not remain silent - every human life counts. Act quickly and decisively to save Evyatar.

We are in pain and we weep.

There is no limit to the grief and cruelty we endure.

There is no limit to the suffering that the Hamas terror organization inflicts on the hostages and on the residents of Gaza.

Shortly after this statement was released, the family approved the release of a second video of Evyatar. (In Israel, the media respects the stated wishes of the families in these unspeakable circumstances.)

Below is a link to the second video of Evyatar David released in two days by Hamas. It is just under five minutes long. Watch it all. Every second.

Evyatar David, telling about how he has been subsisting on sporadic servings of lentils and beans. Consecutive days with no food. Forced to take a shovel and begin digging his own grave. Saying he fears he will be buried there. He knows he is close to death. Following this video is a short report on this nation, reeling.

Today. Is different. It is seismic.

“I want to see just one photo of a Hamas operative who looks like Evyatar—just one.”

Former Hamas hostage, Omer Wenkert, 23, released from captivity on Saturday, February 22, 2025.

Israelis have not slept for almost two years. And for the last two days, since the release of two horrific hostage videos by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the nation has been reeling. A video of 22-year-old Rom Braslavski was released by PIJ on Thursday. On Friday, with the onset of Shabbat, more chilling video was published online by Hamas, who holds 24 year old Evyatar David.

As the mother of a murdered hostage said yesterday: “Get the living out before they (the families) are in my situation. The living won’t survive, and they (the army) won’t find the dead…We are in the destruction of the Third Temple!”

The reference to the Third Temple, of course, invokes the modern state of Israel. She is warning that the state of Israel is being destroyed.

These are not the mad ravings of a lunatic. Many Israelis carry this fear and expressed this openly. It is very real. This woman’s elderly mother was taken hostage by Hamas. Her son was murdered and his remains taken hostage.

The Jewish diaspora is given to nurturing a romanticized version of the tough, indefatigable Israeli. Resilient, they like to say. Regrettably, the reservoir of superhuman fortitude is dangerously depleted today.

Almost every person in this country is a walking mess of exposed, raw nerves.

Today is October 666.

In the New Testament Book of Revelation, 666 is known as the “number of the beast.” It is associated with pure evil. The Antichrist.

The recent videos of Evyatar and Rom are devastating. And the strong and justifiable assumption is that the other 18 men still held captive and presumed to be alive are in the same condition.

David and Braslavski, held in dark, fetid tunnels since the October 7 attack, are skin draped over bones. Bones most of us do not even know we have. Braslavski’s mother, Tami, said that they have broken her son. He can no longer stand. He cries and whimpers feebly, forced to perform by his guards.

Here is a still photo, approved for release by his family from the video PIJ posted online on Thursday of Braslavski:

Omer Wenkert, 24, was lucky to be released on Saturday, February 22, 2025. He spent considerable time in captivity with David and his best friend from childhood, Guy Gilboa-Dallal. A hefty man when captured, Wenkert said yesterday that he lost 37 kilograms in captivity. His captors, he noted, did not shed any weight. They were well fed, always. I want to see just one photo of a Hamas operative who looks like Evyatar—just one.”

When Wenkert left David and Gilboa-Dallal, they were already thin and sallow, but robust compared to the current condition of David.

On the day of Wenkert’s release - Saturday February 22 - David and Gilboa-Dallal’s captors loaded the childhood friends in a van. This was their first glimpse of sky and natural light since October 7. These were the first breaths of fresh air they drew.

The vehicle drove very close to the stage where the Hamas propaganda theatre was in progress for the release of Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.

In a chilling video, we see the van door open as David and Gilboa-Dallal watch. In disbelief. They see their friends, dressed in fake military uniforms, paraded on stage. They know that the others are going home and they are not.

Clearly told by their captors how to react and what to say, the hostages perform on cue, begging to be saved. Telling PM Netanyahu that military pressure will not work. That there must be a deal.

Wenkert said that the video released yesterday of David took him back to the harsh reality. Where they were squeezed into a narrow patch of tunnel. With a hole close by to serve as a toilet.

The same guards see these young men every day and night and not a shred of empathy stirs in them.

Every time I drive into Tel Aviv on the Ayalon highway, a massive billboard with the haunting image of David and Gilboa-Dallal in the van stares back at me.

The images released yesterday of Evyatar David and approved two hours ago for release by the family, show a man, quite likely, on the verge of death. It must be said. Enough with the euphemisms.

Same with Braslavski. In the video released of him on Thursday he says he can no longer see. He has pain in his hands and feet. He breathes with difficulty. He whimpers that he has nothing to eat or drink. Nothing. That video has not been approved for release by the family.

We used to think that Hamas would ensure that the remaining hostages live. To barter. For leverage. Today, there is no confidence behind that hope.

When he visited Hostage Square in Tel Aviv earlier today, President Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, was not his usual ebullient self. He is known for his warm and welcoming demeanor. Today, as he left following a two-hour meeting with hostage family members, Witkoff was surrounded by security. His expressionless face reflected the gravity of this moment. Grim.Very grim.

When meeting with the families, Witkoff reportedly said that the hostages must be released at once. Together. No staged releases as in the past.

In other words, the medical assessment is dire. These men are truly on the brink. They may have hours. Perhaps days.

The meeting with Witkoff and the families, according to reports, was tense. And difficult. The hourglass is empty. That is how horrifying the images are. And Hamas and PIJ? They are proud. They are gloating. They are triumphant.

These Islamist terrorists - no different from ISIS - have the west by the tail. This is the conduct that the world intends to reward with statehood. The pathetic comments about disarming Hamas and ensuring they do not rule are beyond naïve. They are criminally negligent. Hamas and extreme Islamists are not disappearing with the stroke of anyone’s pen or even the imprimatur of the United Nations. And make no mistake, the PA are no angels either. But I’ll get into that in the coming days.

Today is about Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski. And 18 additional male hostages presumed to be alive. There are also thirty corpses of Israelis that are held “hostage” in the Gaza Strip.

Witkoff confirmed in comments today that the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is dreadful but that there is no famine or mass starvation. Famine, of course, is a technical term – as callous as that may sound – with specific criteria. But there is no question that civilians in Gaza are suffering terribly. And, frankly, most Israelis – myself included – do not care to parse whose “fault” it is at this point. That is obscene.

Like most Israelis, for the last few days I have been watching the videos of these two men and find myself unable to look away from the photos. The images are always available on the internet but Israeli media do not publish anything without the agreement of the families.

Many released hostages have come forward in the last two days to speak to this unspeakable, ongoing horror.

An extraordinary young woman, 19-year-old Agam Goldstein-Almog, survived Hamas captivity with her mother and two younger brothers. Her father and older sister were murdered by Hamas terrorists inside the family home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Before her eyes.

“The world is silent,” she wrote in a social media post yesterday. “They talk about hunger in Gaza and forget that in my house stood monsters with murder in their eyes. They slaughtered my loved ones in cold blood.”

“The world doesn’t understand. The world left us alone. Just five kilometers from my home, evil still breathes holding hostages. My world collapsed—and so did the world of many other families,” she wrote. “We were alone that Saturday and we are still alone today. The world abandoned us and remains silent.”

So many of the elderly, the iconic tough Israelis - the resilient type - who have lived through all the wars and crises, to a person they say that they have never been so concerned for the future.

As a very senior Israeli public official remarked to me after the release of the Braslavski images, “This is a tsunami. In more then 30 years of public life I have never seen such a disaster. I am losing hope.”

This man has seen it all. The deluge of diplomatic, military, domestic and every other form of pressure, he said, is simply too much. It is overwhelming everyone and everything. And the government remains, well, detached.

PM Netanyahu’s closest adviser, Ron Dermer, who is Israel’s lead negotiator on the hostage matter as well as Minister for Strategic Affairs, commented recently to a hostage parent: “I have no constituents. I am not accountable to anyone.”

Imagine. If your son or brother or husband was a hostage. Such callousness.

Speaking today at a press conference outside the Begin Gate of the IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv, Itzik Horn, father of hostage Eitan Horn (and another son, Iair, who was released in the last hostage “deal” made these comments:

“We are facing the destruction of the Third Temple. The State of Israel cannot be a home for Jews while abandoning Jews to torture. It is inconceivable and unforgivable that until this moment no genuine negotiations have been conducted for a comprehensive deal. The people of Israel will hold accountable everyone responsible for the foot-dragging and selections. No more stalling and games, we must not abandon our children to Hamas. The only way to get our children out is through public pressure. Netanyahu will not release them if the country doesn't tremble."

Beginning at sundown today, the solemn day on the Jewish calendar of Tisha B’Av begins. Devout Jews fast, as they mark the commemoration of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, representing the equivalent of nuclear disaster to the Jewish nation. I am not a religious person, but the timing of this crisis is eery.

G-d help us all.