Freed captive attempted suicide in Gaza until she saw footage of hostage protests

In a separate interview, Yehoud said she endured sexual assault on an almost daily basis while being held alone.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Former hostage Arbel Yehoud said in interviews broadcast Friday that she repeatedly tried to take her own life while being held captive in Gaza, but stopped after seeing footage of public protests in Israel demanding the hostages’ release, which she said showed her that strangers were fighting for her return.

In an interview with Channel 12 news, Yehoud said her captors showed her drone footage from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, where weekly demonstrations were held during the war.

“One of the times, not long before my release, I saw drone footage from Hostages Square [in Tel Aviv]. I saw people holding signs of people I don’t know, and then suddenly I saw signs of people I knew. I saw a sign for Ariel [Cunio] and a sign for me, signs of people from the kibbutz,” she said.

“From the moment I saw that, I didn’t try to put an end to my own life there,” Yehoud added. She said she attempted to kill herself at least three times during captivity and described the protest footage as the turning point.

“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.”

In a separate interview, Yehoud said she endured sexual assault on an almost daily basis while being held alone.

Yehoud was released after 482 days in captivity during a truce in January 2025. Cunio was returned under an Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal reached in October.

The two, who described themselves as high school sweethearts, were kidnapped together from their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but were separated shortly after arriving in Gaza.

Cunio told Channel 12 that he pleaded for them to stay together. “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,” he said. “It happened so fast, there wasn’t even time to say ‘I love you, be strong.’”

Both were held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which kept them isolated. Cunio said he spent months confined in a crawlspace above a store, enduring extreme heat and constant fear.

After pressing his captors for information about Yehoud, he was allowed to write letters that were passed between them. Cunio said the correspondence focused on their love and on surviving without knowing which family members were alive.