Hostage couple describe their ordeals

(TIMES OF ISRAEL) Former hostage Arbel Yehoud revealed in an interview broadcast last Friday that she attempted to end her life several times while held captive by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, but ultimately decided not to after her captors showed her video of a protest in Israel where she saw her face on a poster, and she understood that people were fighting for her.

In a separate interview, Yehoud indicated that she had faced sexual assault on an almost daily basis among widespread abuses she suffered while being held alone.

She attempted to kill herself at least three times while in captivity. “When I saw the drone footage and understood that people who I don’t know are fighting for me as if I were their sister or daughter, I have a duty to return to Ariel and my family, but also to those fighting for me.”

Yehoud and Ariel Cunio, self-described “high school sweethearts”, were kidnapped together from their shared home at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel.

Yehoud was released after 482 days in captivity during a truce in January 2025, while Cunio was returned as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal reached in October.