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.

Cunio recalled the terror of their abduction and being torn apart once they entered Gaza.

“I told her, ‘The most important thing is that we stay together. As long as they don’t separate us, we’ll be okay.’ Half an hour later, that is what happened,” Cunio said.

Both were held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which kept them separate and alone.

“I was completely alone for two years, I never saw a single captive,” Cunio said. “Have you ever wondered if you’ll see the sunrise tomorrow?”

He said that after being captured, he was first taken to a residential building, before being held in a crawlspace above the ceiling of a store.

“I was there for about three and a half months, hunched over all the time, with mice walking around you, cockroaches, and you sitting on a mattress all day. The windows are closed, the door is closed all day,” he said. “Even though you’re not underground, you don’t have air. You feel suffocated, the heat is so intense that you sweat 24/7 for months. You’re dirty, your skin turns black, a rash on your body, from head to toe.”

Cunio said that after repeatedly pressing his captors for information on Yehoud, they told him to write a letter, which they ended up passing along to her, leading to a period of a few months in which they were able to correspond. However, they weren’t able to keep up the communication.

Yehoud was released as one of seven hostages handed over during a long process in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, one of the most chaotic handover ceremonies that saw her and Gadi Mozes paraded through a seething mass, including hundreds of masked gunmen.

“I remember stepping out and seeing that sea of green headbands,” she said. “I was the only woman. My mind was trying to process – am I free? But I’m still surrounded by them? I was terrified, but I knew I had to survive. My thoughts were of Ariel – I had to get back to him.”

While speaking with Daily Mail, Yehoud also spoke of the difficulty in being able to speak about her experiences since her release and how she drew inspiration from other former hostages. There is a lot she says she is still unable to talk about.