AJC Runs Full Page New York Times Ad to Expose Israeli Hostage Suffering

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, today ran a full-page advertisement in The New York Times exposing the brutal conditions faced by Israeli hostage Evyatar David. These harrowing images, showing him starved more than 600 days after being kidnapped by Hamas during the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, should have been front-page news everywhere. Instead, they were largely ignored by major U.S. newspapers.

Under the words "Kidnapped. Starved." two side-by-side pictures show how Evyatar's appearance has changed and how much weight he has lost. The first, taken before October 7, 2023, shows Evyatar looking happy and healthy. The second is a still from a Hamas propaganda video released on Friday, August 1, 2025, showing Evyatar looking emaciated and terrified. The ad will also run in the paper's Sunday edition.

"Over the last 670 days, Evyatar David and the other hostages have been starved and brutalized by Hamas, locked underground with no sunlight, no fresh air, torn from everyone they love - and the world's biggest newspapers look the other way," said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. "Selective coverage from major media outlets has fed and continues to feed a biased narrative that too often ignores Israeli and Jewish suffering. That's why AJC is running this ad - to force the world to bear witness and demand: Bring Them Home NOW."

Evyatar's family approved the images for publication, describing his condition as "a living skeleton, buried alive." He was also filmed digging a hole in an underground Hamas tunnel, a grave he feared would be his own.

Since Hamas' brutal attack on October 7, 2023, AJC has been advocating side-by-side with more than 50 hostage families, during dozens of visits to the United States and Europe, to keep their stories front of mind for officials at the highest levels of leadership across society, including by meeting with more than 200 members of Congress, multiple national media outlets, the U.S. State Department and other senior U.S. administration officials, high-ranking diplomats, faith leaders, and others.

In addition to this in-person advocacy, AJC supporters around the world have been flooding the inboxes of members of Congress and state and local officials with more than 650,000 messages sent from AJC's online action center, urging immediate action to bring the hostages home. Today's advertisement includes a QR code that directs readers to this action center.

AJC is the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people. With headquarters in New York, 25 regional offices across the United States, 15 overseas posts, as well as partnerships with 38 Jewish community organizations worldwide, AJC's mission is to enhance the well-being of the Jewish people and Israel and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. For more, please visit www.ajc.org.

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