'He must be saved!': Brother of emaciated Israeli hostage pleads for his release

David, 24, is one of 251 people taken captive by Hamas and its allies during their October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Last week, Hamas released propaganda videos showing him severely undernourished and visibly weakened, including one in which he digs with a shovel in the sandy floor of a tunnel, saying he is preparing his grave.

"The world must come together now... and demand his release. He must be saved!" his brother Ilay David said in an interview Tuesday with AFP in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, at the family home where they both were raised.

The recent videos of Evyatar David and fellow hostage Rom Braslavski have sparked outrage and fear for their safety among Israelis, as well as condemnations of Hamas from abroad.

In captivity for nearly 22 months, David has since become a symbol of the ongoing ordeal of the 20 hostages believed to still be alive among the 49 held by Hamas.

Red and black posters demanding his release hang on the walls of the family's living room, the same posters that plaster walls across Israel in solidarity with the hostages.

On February 23, Hamas had released a video showing David sitting in a vehicle alongside another hostage as they were forced to watch a staged ceremony marking the release of three other captives during a brief ceasefire that later collapsed.

"That was the last sign of life we had from him," Ilay David told AFP.

"We thought then that was the worst possible cruelty... These new images show just how urgent it is to get him out of that tunnel," he said.