Evyatar David as seen in a Hamas propaganda video released in August 2025.
TEL AVIV— The first time the world saw him, Evyatar David was digging his own grave in a Gaza tunnel.
Skeletal and hollow-eyed, the 24-year-old Israeli hostage’s appearance in Hamas’ propaganda video was shocking — after nearly two years in captivity, his family could hardly believe this was the same young man they’d last seen on his way to the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 6, 2023, hours before the first Hamas hang-glider appeared in Israel’s skies.
The disturbing footage of Evyatar—a musician whose emaciated visage conjured images of starved Holocaust victims—is etched into the mind of Jews across the world, including Parkland.
Each Sunday morning, a group of Jewish advocates and their allies in the Broward suburb gather near a busy intersection to walk for Evyatar and the other 47 hostages still trapped in Gaza. They hold banners and posters of faces of those held captive for the past 717 days; faces most of the world ignores or, worse yet, vilifies.
In Parkland, the reception is different. Passing cars honk in support. Children walk alongside parents, waving to passersby. A nearby church lets out during the same hour the group walks, and congregants often stop to offer support.
Members of the “Run for Their Lives” Parkland chapter on a recent walk {Helene Foster}.
It’s a small ritual with an outsized meaning. Because more than 6,500 miles away in Tel Aviv, Evyatar’s first cousin, Matan Eshet, draws strength from the Parkland group and hundreds like them walking all over the world.
It’s strength Evyatar’s family says they need now more than ever, in the wake of Hamas’ shocking propaganda video released last month.
“I believe you remember the skeleton of a person in the tunnel talking about being starved, digging his own grave — that’s my cousin, that’s what he looks like today,” Eshet told Parkland Talk Sept. 8 during a meeting with journalists in Tel Aviv. “This is not the person that my family and I have known for 22 years before October 7. It was heartbreaking and terrible to see.”
{Kevin Deutsch}
Eshet added: “His mother hasn’t seen the video yet, because she can’t [bear to] see her child like that. But the fact that we needed to fight in order to make sure that the news media would actually cover [that video] of a person being deliberately starved; it broke us on a new level. Because there is this huge [media push] talking about famine going on in Gaza, and my cousin, this beautiful kid, is being starved to the point that he looks like a photo from the 1940s, from camps that we all said would never happen again.”
When the Parkland advocates saw the footage of Evyatar, they marched with new urgency. They know the surviving hostages, Evtayar believed to be among them, are running out of time.
“We hear from the families saying that our walks give them hope and make them feel less alone,” said Helene Foster, a Parkland resident and founder of the local walking group, one of more than 230 global chapters in the “Run for Their Lives” organization. “We try to send videos directly to the hostage families every week. We just want to be there for them, and this is our way to do that and show the world, show our community that we’re standing with them, and we’re standing with Israel, and we pray for them all to come home and be with their families.”
Eshet said that, like global Run for Their Lives advocates, his family has bolstered their efforts since seeing Hamas’ video of Evyatar.
Matan Eshet, cousin of hostage Evyatar David {Kevin Deutsch}.
“We have a few goals,” Eshet said. “Our biggest goal is to make sure Evyatar comes back home. And our second goal is to make sure that all of the other hostages come back home. It doesn’t matter for us if they’re alive or murdered. People who are alive need to recover physically and mentally, and the people who have lost their lives because of this horrible, horrible day [Oct. 7], their families need closure. They need to be given the respect of having a proper burial place.”
“That’s what we’ve been talking about for [more than 700] days now, and unfortunately, it seems like it’s going to take us even longer to make sure that they come back,” Eshet added. “If they’re still alive, it means they haven’t given up hope.”
{Kevin Deutsch}
Foster said the Parkland walks are as much for the surviving hostages as they are for those captives murdered by Hamas and held as bargaining chips by the terrorist organization.
One such hostage is Itay Chen, a 19-year-old U.S.-born dual citizen. An IDF soldier, Chen was killed October 7 while defending civilians living in an agricultural area near the Gaza border, his body dragged into Gaza as Palestinians cheered the arrival of Israeli hostages on Gaza’s streets.
Itay’s brother, Roy Chen, 24, told Parkland Talk he appreciates the support of Americans walking for his brother.
“It’s important. We are fighting for him every day,” Chen said in Tel Aviv.
Roy Chen, brother of hostage Itay Chen {Kevin Deutsch}.
Both the Davids and the Chens have been outspoken about what they see as systemic failures — by media outlets biased against Israel, by international organizations, and by governments.
Back in Parkland, far from the strife in Gaza, Foster’s hostage walks are a weekly reminder that Evyatar, Itay, and the other Hamas captives are not forgotten; that their stories are still being told, that across oceans and continents, strangers are still walking for them.
“We want to make sure that the hostages’ names and faces are out there, even if the media has moved on to other stories,” Foster said. “We want to keep talking about them until the last hostage. We want to keep reminding the world that they’re still there and they need to come home.”
Send your news to Parkland’s #1 Award-Winning News Source, Parkland Talk. Don’t Miss Tamarac Talk, Coral Springs Talk, Coconut Creek Talk, Margate Talk, and Sunrise FL Talk.
Author Profile
Related
NewsOctober 9, 2025“I Hear Her Voice Tell Me to Keep Going”: Hunter Pollack’s Journey from Parkland Tragedy to the Department of Justice
NewsSeptember 29, 2025Opinion: From Parkland Activist to Antisemitic Conspiracist: David Hogg’s New Israel Obsession
NewsSeptember 23, 2025From Tel Aviv to Parkland, Families Draw Strength After Shocking Hamas Hostage Footage
NewsAugust 31, 2025Margate Man Who Targeted Jewish Americans, Including Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Sentenced
