In a room silenced by the sheer weight of their testimony, former hostages Guy Gilboa Dalal and Evyatar David took the stage at the Israel Hayom Summit on Tuesday to recount an ordeal that lasted more than two years in Hamas captivity.
Video: Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal / Credit: The Israel Hayom Summit / Credit: Flowmotion
The two men, best friends since infancy, described a "kinship of survival" that saw them through physical atrophy, sexual abuse, and the psychological torture of the tunnels, emerging with a bond that they say is unlike anything possible in normal life.
Guy and Evyatar have known each other since they were one year old. Although Guy moved from Kfar Saba when he was seven, their friendship persisted through years of sleepovers and shared milestones. But following their abduction from the Supernova music festival on October 7, 2023, that friendship became a lifeline.
"It just got upgraded to a new level in captivity," Guy said.
Evyatar described a dynamic of total selflessness in the face of starvation. "It was a kinship of survival. Everything we got, we just split in two," he said, noting that he would often try to give more to Guy than he kept for himself. "Everything was shared."
Host Yoav Limor noted the profound non-verbal communication between the two men, observing that they seemed to "talk with their eyes" and never trampled on one another's dignity.
"In captivity, it got an entirely different and deeper meaning," Evyatar responded. "It became something that it wasn't before, that you cannot forge in real life."
The horror of the tunnels
The pair offered harrowing details regarding their physical condition during their confinement. Guy described a period where they resembled "skeletons," their bodies shutting down from malnutrition and immobility.
"I had atrophied muscles in my shoulders. For a month, I would just sit hunched, and I couldn't move my shoulders," Guy recalled. "It was too painful to use my shoulders."
Video: Guy Gilboa-Dalal eats chocolate / Credit: Courtesy
The physical deterioration required them to rely on one another for the most basic human needs. Guy shared that he lost the ability to dress himself. "Evyatar had to lower my pants down when I went to the bathroom and then pull them up again," he said. The cold was so intense that they would forgo showers just to try to keep warm. "We would clean ourselves, including our crotch with wipes, he would do that for me because I could not move my shoulders."
In one of the most difficult moments of the panel, Guy revealed the specific brutality he faced at the hands of his captors.
"I was sexually assaulted by the terrorist who guarded me twice," Guy said. despite the starvation and the physical pain, he identified this as his darkest hour. "Everything was difficult, but this was the most difficult time. I was stuck there in the same tunnel, I had nowhere to run."
Saved by music
When asked if they were able to listen to music – a shared passion for both men – Guy replied, "I wish I could have."
Instead, they survived on the memory of it. "We both share the love for music," Guy explained. "That is what saved us. We would talk on music and performance, and that is what kept us in good shape."
The pain of separation
After enduring the majority of their captivity side-by-side, the friends were separated during the final two months before their release.
Guy, turning to Evyatar on stage, asked him when he realized they had been truly separated.
"I waited three days, but there were no signs you were coming back," Evyatar answered. "Eventually, I managed to cope with this."
Now reunited and free, the two sat side-by-side in New York, their survival standing as a testament to a friendship that withstood the darkest conditions imaginable.
Evyatar recalled how they would get a flat portion of rice or lentils and pita . Asked if the captors feared they would die. "Yes we were very close to dying. Toward the end we couldn't even warm ourselves, it was very painful to just get up – you would get headaches when getting up, you would have to hold the walls just to go the bathroom and keep your balance." He added, "the captors were not that smart."
They recalled how they were at some point 4 hostages who were kept in a septic drain field. "It was unfathomable, it was a hole full of humane waste that we had to dig," Guy said. "We were in a tunnel and with four mattresses just next to each other; the width was my chair's width and the height was four feet - it was one big stench, without ventilation, and the maggots would grow into flies and climb our food; it was not human." He said that they all agreed to rotate on who would sleep just next to the human waste.
Evyatar said that they would get a small stash of wipes for hygiene that would have to suffice for a week "so you had to cut them into pieces to economize them."
Q: How did you keep you sanity?
Evyatar said: "First you have to find some routine. To keep yourself busy. Of course our friendship also really helped. We could have banter on various things, to talk about the people we know., we also had some worn out cards that we played until Guy could not longer move his body."
Q:Did you know what was happening outside?
Guy: When i got out, i had no idea what happened to my brother (who had been abducted like him from the Nova party). Not known was so difficult, because I saw what happened in the Nova rave, when I met Omer (Wenkert) I heard what happened in the other locations and shelters, and kibbutzim. I was devastated over just thinking what could have happened to him. For over a year I didn't have any information from the outside, even during the first 8 month we only had limited actions to Al-Jazeera, and then after 8 months when we were in the tunnels they kept brainwashing us that "the country is not fighting for you, the government doesnt' want you back, scaring us that the Arab countries around Israel were bombarding the country."
Q: Did you cry?
Evyatar: "Yes, because it's liberating."
Q: Like when?
Evyatar: After the first two hostage deals, when were not released, i started to panic, I told guy that I won't see my family again.
Q: Guy, it takes a lot of courage to open up about what you experienced. Why did you do that? '
Guy: Several reasons, many women and men get sexually attacked. I want people to hear my story and if this empowers people this is a great honor for me.
The crowd erupted in applause, and he continued: "I want them to know that it is not a shame to talk about this, not just publicly on TV but also with a therapist. It is important that they know that they are not alone. This is mainly why."
Q: Did you realize just how big the efforts were to get you released? The presidents were trying to secure your release?
Evyatar: No, because we not exposed to anything. It's crazy, when Trump was elected we heard about it and we were sure that it would help us, and of course it did help. We are immensely indebted to him so much; I don't know how we could have stayed longer were it not for Trump."
Q: What does it feel like to be wrapped with love and see so much food?
"We are in heaven," Guy said. Evyatar concurred: "Every day waking up and realizing you are not in a tunnel is great." They kept talking to eachother during captivity on what they dreamed they ate during the night, they said.
