“It’s the biggest closure and a huge moment of victory,” former Gaza hostage Evyatar David said about Eliya Cohen, another former hostage, recently getting married, during an interview with CNN on Wednesday.
The interview marked the first time the 25-year-old had spoken to international media about his experiences as a Hamas hostage following his abduction.
“They tried to ruin our [lives] and our families’ lives and eventually they didn’t manage to ruin everything,” he said.
Nevertheless, the former hostage explained that he was still suffering from intense psychological trauma from his experiences.
“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," he told CNN. "I wake up at night with nightmares, and it affects me all day after that. It’s very unstable and random.”
The Israeli government, David claimed, was not providing enough support for himself and the other former hostages. “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.”
David was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, together with his childhood best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal. He was held hostage by Hamas until October 13, 2025.
Hamas starved hostage before propaganda video of digging his own grave
During that time, Hamas released propaganda videos of David, one of which showed him and Gilboa-Dalal forced to witness a staged release ceremony for other captives in February 2025, only to be left behind. The second, released in August 2025, showed David gaunt and pale, emaciated and digging his own grave, shocking the nation.
During his CNN interview, David discussed how weak he had been during the filming of the latter video, due to the starvation inflicted upon him by his captors.
"It’s all staged, but it relies on the truth – we didn’t eat for three months,” he explained. "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.”
His guards, on the other hand, had food, air conditioning, and television, David told CNN.
“They told us there is no food in Gaza, but we knew it’s not true ‘cos we always saw the terrorists – they were fat and had muscles. We knew they were lying and starving us,” he said.
“I could hear them laughing, eating cakes and drinking tea, like there is nobody walking next to them that looks like a skeleton."
Former hostage does not think peace is possible
David expressed pessimism about the possibility of US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace succeeding in its mission to secure a lasting peace between Israel and Gaza.
"I don't think it's possible," he said, "because their pure ideology, they just want the whole land. They don't really care about Gaza. I could see in their eyes - It's the thing that they want the most."
Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.