January 1, Hamas Hostages Return After Brutal Tunnel Ordeal

Wyatt’s Take

• Two young Israeli men survived two years of torture and starvation by Hamas.
• Hostages lived with almost no food, water, or air while buried underground.
• The men finally walked free in a historic release this Monday.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David spent two years buried alive in Hamas tunnels, suffering severe starvation and psychological torment before being released with 18 others on Monday.

Their struggle was shared by Tal Shoham, another former hostage held with them, who called their time underground a “tomb” and described brutal daily abuse.

Captured at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023, both men were beaten by a mob and kept zip-tied and hooded for weeks, nearly starved from the start.

After joining Shoham in captivity, food rations dropped to just a pita and tiny bits of cheese a day. On Fridays, things got even worse as guards celebrated while the hostages went hungrier.

Their captors taunted and beat them daily, eating full meals in front of the starving prisoners and mocking them about being abandoned.

In June 2024, the men were moved deeper underground using medical vehicles as cover. They were marched through tunnels and forced into a tiny chamber with little water or air, sharing space with yet another hostage who’d been left alone for months.

Conditions below ground were almost impossible. The hostages had so little water that thirst became worse than hunger. They were kept in filth and barely had enough oxygen to breathe.

Hamas starved them on purpose, saying it was to make the men look like Holocaust survivors for propaganda, sometimes giving less than 300 calories a day while guards feasted on aid meant for civilians.

This rescue brought them home, scarred but alive, after two of the hardest years anyone could imagine.

Not a day goes by in the heartland that we can’t feel for folks suffering at the hands of evil like this. Family, faith, and freedom—those are the values that bind us, no matter where we live. We stand with people who fight to survive and come home to what matters most.

Read the full story

Wyatt Matters

Stories of endurance and coming home speak to the grit and hope folks in Middle America respect most. Protecting those we love and standing up against cruelty—those are the values worth fighting for.