By NATALIE LISBONA, JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT and ANDY JEHRING, CHIEF FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
Since the horrifying footage of her emaciated son being forced to dig his own grave in the terror tunnels of Gaza went around the world, Galia David has barely left her home.
She had already endured nearly two years of unimaginable torment after Evyatar was kidnapped from the Nova festival in southern Israel with his best friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal.
Both 24-year-olds spent their first weeks of captivity bound hand and foot with bags over their heads, blood dripping from their wounded limbs.
The last sign of life had come in February, when Hamas cruelly filmed them watching other hostages released, and then returned them to the tunnels.
But Friday’s video was of a different order of depravity. ‘He looked like a skeleton,’ dance instructor Galia tells the Daily Mail of that haunting image. ‘It is sadistic torture.’
Today she bravely speaks out for the first time, supported by Guy’s parents, whose son is believed to be in the same state of starvation, to remind the international community ‘who here is cruel’.
Galia said: ‘We very much hope this video has shaken people enough.’
When such videos emerge from Hamas, the mainstream media wait for families to give the green light before airing them.
Screengrab of video released by Hamas of Evyatar David appearing to dig his own grave
Evyatar, left, and best friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal in 2022 before being kidnapped by Hamas from a music festival
Guy, left, and Evyatar enjoy a swim aged 12. The pair are lifelong friends
Galia explained: ‘That is why we ultimately decided to allow the release of the video – so that the world will truly understand how the hostages are suffering, who here is cruel, who is abusing not only our children but also the population in Gaza.
‘I want everyone in the world to see this image, to know what Hamas terrorists are doing.’
While Galia said she cannot ‘waste energy on anger, blame, or accusations’, Guy’s father, Ilan Dalal, was more direct.
Visibly still furious at Britain’s decision to follow France in pushing for Palestinian statehood – a move Hamas celebrated as ‘the fruits of October 7’ and saw them harden their negotiation stance – he addressed Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron directly.
‘Because of you there wasn’t an agreement to bring our children home, and you caused the war in Gaza to continue,’ he told the leaders.
‘The suffering of the Gazans is on your hands. It’s on you. The same goes for the suffering of the hostages.’
It came as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday said Sir Keir ‘has made a mistake’ with the plan. Referencing the image of Evyatar, Ms Badenoch said: ‘This is what Hamas is about.
‘Now is not the time to reward them for their atrocities and for the massacre they committed on October 7 by giving them statehood recognition.’
From left to right, Guy’s parents, Meirav and Ilan Dalal, and Evyatar’s mother Galia
Galia David last year during a Friends of Israel fringe event about her son Evyatar
Posters appealing for the return of the young men in Guy’s home
Of her son’s desperate condition, Galia said: ‘I don’t think I have to tell you how urgent it is to get them out.
‘Medical professionals told us that he can live for only another few days. Guy is in the exact same condition.’
Visibly heartbroken, the mother of three said she feels a ‘terrible frustration’ as Evyatar and Guy have been held underground for so long they ‘haven’t a clue’ what efforts their families are making to save them.
Both have been in tunnels since June last year – aside from when they were taken above ground to torment them for the cruel video last February. ‘I want anyone who is human to understand this,’ Galia added.
‘I want each person to stop and think for a moment: What if this were your son or brother?
‘What would you do? Would you just sit silently? No. You would turn the world upside down.’
Galia was at home in Kfar Saba when friends started messaging about a video of her son posted on Telegram by the terrorists on Friday last week.
Talking to the Daily Mail in Guy’s home, she stroked the hand of his mother, Meirav, as she revealed the two women made a pact at that moment. ‘We spoke about it and decided we didn’t intend to watch it,’ she said.
The mothers share a special bond and see each other as family as their sons are ‘soul brothers’ who have been inseparable since they met as toddlers.
Both grew up going on camping trips together and love music – which is what saw them go to Nova when they were kidnapped on October 7, 2023. Horrifying footage from that day shows the young men pinned to the floor, their eyes bulging in terror.
‘Meirav and I are just holding on to each other, trying to muster whatever strength we still have because Evyatar and Guy are our children,’ Galia said.
While the fact their sons are together has given some comfort, they also know that ‘when one of them is tortured and abused, the other feels it as if it was his own flesh, exactly the same’.
Despite their intentions, it has been impossible not to catch glimpses of the clip and – while the world has focused on Evyatar – both mothers believe you can spot Guy at one point. Former hostage Tal Shoham, who was held with them, told the women their sons are still in the same tunnel they were held in when he was freed in February.
‘There’s nowhere else to take him, nowhere to move him to, so they hid him there [while they filmed the footage],’ Meirav said of her son.
She also highlighted how the hand of the Hamas guard in the video is quite clearly well-nourished – in stark contrast to the hostages. ‘The hand that reached out to give Evyatar food was a fat hand – a full hand,’ she said. ‘And I know that Evyatar no longer has hands. Only bones.
‘This is one of the things I don’t understand – why is the world not waking up because of it?’
Just on Tuesday, the Daily Mail revealed UN statistics that show 86 per cent of aid for Gaza is stolen by Hamas and other armed militants. Describing what Guy and Evyatar are enduring as ‘a Holocaust’, she adds: ‘I am sick of this hypocrisy of the world. People are simply bleeding hearts, and they don’t grasp what’s happening. And my son and Evyatar are rotting in the tunnels, with other hostages, which is insane.’
For both mothers, they want just one thing.
‘I want to hug my child,’ said Galia. ‘I want to reach that moment when Guy and Evyatar are brought back to us and we can tell them, ‘You are safe, we are here for you.’
‘From now on, this journey only goes in the direction of good.’
