The talented musician, who went to the Nova festival raided by Hamas to dance, was seen on a video call with his parents on Sunday, just before he was released. He has now also embraced his family in person.
Hamas suffers new final defeat: Israel refuses to release key prisoners in exchange for hostages
In recent days, friends of David gathered at his home in Hod Hasharon, near Tel Aviv. “There is no way to describe this moment, it cannot be compared to anything else,” a friend of the 24-year-old hostage told Daily Mail. Photos taken after his release show that David is still very emaciated. When he arrived at the hospital in Petah Tikva on Monday afternoon, he gave hand kisses to the friends and family gathered there.
David spent the first weeks of his captivity with his hands bound and a bag over his head. On August 1, Hamas released an image of the emaciated David with a shovel in his hand in a Hamas tunnel. “I waited two years for this moment. When I saw him, I felt like I couldn’t breathe,” says one of the relatives of the ex-hostage. “Now I can breathe again.”
David spent the first weeks of his captivity with his hands bound and a bag over his head. © ANP / HH