🔗 Share this article Freed Jewish Captive Forced to Dig His Own Grave Is 'Growing Back to His Old Self', Parent Says Released Jewish captive Evyatar David signals to crowds as he comes back to his residence in Kfar Saba The father of a liberated Jewish captive who was compelled to excavate his own burial site in a Gaza underground passage has mentioned that his son's well-being is "enhancing every day". Avishai David was commenting after his 24-year son Evyatar David and another two liberated hostages - another former captive and Eitan Mor - were released from hospital to a celebratory reception at their homes on Sunday. "It's hard to describe how pleased it makes me to see him returning to his former self," the father continued. Back in August, eight weeks before Evyatar's freedom, the militant group had released a video revealing him emaciated in a tight concrete underground passage - a decision that received disapproval from Israeli authorities and several Western officials. A still depicting Jewish captive Evyatar David being held in a Gaza tunnel from the video released in August by Hamas The father stated he was delighted to see his son's "vitality enhancing every day, his complexion coming back [to his face], his facial features turning fuller". "Fortunately, he survived and he's resilient." The father stated he had endured for several months aware that his son was only "80 kilometers away... and there was nothing I could do to help him". "It crushed me," he commented, including that he "was unable to sleep, consuming food, hydrate adequately." During August, Evyatar's brother Ilay had labeled the Hamas footage as a "unprecedented kind of brutality". "He looks emaciated. He was being deprived of food to the degree where he could be deceased at any time, and he suffers a great deal," Ilay said at the period. In the video itself, Evyatar said: "I haven't consumed food for several days... I scarcely received potable water." He was seen digging what he said would be his personal grave. This past Sunday, cheering assemblies - featuring numerous acquaintances and neighbours - received Evyatar David as he returned to his birthplace of the central Israeli city in the center of Israel. Dr Michal Shteinman, chief at the healthcare center where the three released hostages were treated, mentioned their health status still bore the marks of "this awful captivity". "We observe their laboratory results... and we've also learned their stories... they are not lying. You can observe the signs of this physiological trauma. Their skin reveals their journey. You can observe the blemishes and the injuries." But Dr Shteinman added that the detainees "returned stronger than they were previously". Evyatar was kidnapped from the music gathering during the militant group's assault on southern Israeli territory on the seventh of October, 2023. The former captive and 19 additional alive hostages have been liberated by Hamas under the first phase of a United States-negotiated truce arrangement this month. The militant group has also transferred fifteen out of twenty-eight dead captives. Thirteen were Jewish people, a single person was Nepali and the remaining Thai. In return, Israeli authorities has released two hundred fifty Arab inmates and 1,718 individuals from the Gaza Strip, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians for every Israeli hostage's corpse. Israeli forces launched a military campaign in Gaza in reaction to the October 7th, 2023 offensive, in which Hamas-led fighters murdered about 1,200 individuals in southern Israeli territory and took 251 more individuals detainee. In excess of 68,000 individuals individuals have been fatally injured by Israeli military actions in Gaza afterwards, based on information from the Hamas-run medical authority, whose statistics are regarded by the United Nations as credible.