A former hostage who was held in Gaza for nearly 16 months pleaded with Israeli lawmakers on Monday to step up efforts to bring home the remaining hostages, as military operations intensified in the enclave.
Arbel Yehoud, 28, addressed a Knesset committee meeting in Jerusalem alongside her father, urging the government to prioritize a negotiated agreement for the return of the hostages still held by Hamas. Yehoud was abducted from her home in the southern kibbutz of Nir Oz during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and released in late January after 482 days in captivity. Her partner, Ariel Cunio, and his brother, David Cunio, remain in Gaza.
“I am a proud Jew who survived the horrific captivity of terrorist organizations in Gaza for 482 days until I was reunited with my family,” Yehoud said during emotional testimony. “I have come to cry out on behalf of my brothers and sisters who are still there.”
Yehoud criticized the Israeli government’s military-focused strategy, saying it endangered hostages still in Gaza.
“I believed that my family and the government of Israel would act to secure my release as their highest and only priority,” she said. “I was right about my family, but not about the government, which even today, 591 days since the war began, chooses to pursue a military course that puts the hostages’ lives at risk.”
She described harrowing moments during her captivity, including Israeli airstrikes that struck near her location. During one operation in Rafah that rescued hostages Louis Herr and Fernando Marman, she said she feared for her life.
“I decided to say goodbye to my family because I felt it would be my last day,” she said.
Following an Israeli operation that harmed relatives of her captors, Yehoud said she was beaten and thrown into isolation “for many days, without food suitable for human consumption and under hygiene conditions reminiscent of concentration camps during the Holocaust.”
Yehoud said she endured beatings, psychological torment and attempts to break her spirit, but clung to the hope of reuniting with her family, especially her late brother Dolev’s children.
“Even in moments of despair, I did not break,” she said. “Our loved ones who remain in captivity are enduring their days and nights under similar or even worse conditions.”
She urged ministers and lawmakers to back a negotiated deal for the release of all hostages.
“Only through negotiation is this possible. The terrorists do not value their own lives or the lives of Gaza’s citizens,” she said. “We must act to prevent further deaths, to stop the bloodshed of soldiers, and to bring the fallen home for burial.”
Yehoud warned that recovery for former hostages like herself cannot begin until all are returned.
“While we may physically be here, mentally, we are still in captivity with them,” she said. “Look at me and see who you abandoned, who you chose to sacrifice as your solution to the Gaza problem.”
“There are still 58 Israeli citizens in captivity who are not only suffering, but also dying. Your hands will be stained with their blood and the blood of soldiers if you do not stop the war.”
Her father, Yechi Yehoud, also spoke, calling on Israeli citizens to pressure the government.
“Take the power to decide out of the hands of the government,” he said. “Listen to Arbel’s cry. She cannot begin to heal without Ariel. Sharon Cunio cannot begin to heal without David. The family of Inbar Heyman cannot live without her being brought to burial in Israel.”
Several other families attended the hearing to express anguish over their missing loved ones. Haim Heyman, whose daughter Inbar was killed in captivity, said, “Inbar has been gone for a year and eight months — this is a failure. If military pressure will bring them back, then apply it. But that’s not what we’re seeing.”
He criticized what he called a “selection process” determining who is freed.
“It’s no longer moral. Everyone is a humanitarian case. Everyone must be released at once,” he said.
Kobi Ahel, father of 24-year-old Alon Ahel — one of the remaining hostages — said his son is critically injured and has not received medical aid.
“I know Alon is injured — in the eye, in the head — and he’s starving,” he told Ynet in a separate interview on Monday.
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Ahel said any deal currently under negotiation is urgent.
“I can only ask the prime minister to do everything to release them,” he said. “I’m not a politician or a military expert — I have to rely on the decision-makers.”
He expressed frustration over what he described as a lack of reciprocity in humanitarian aid.
“No one is talking about our injured and our hostages,” he said, questioning why the international community focuses only on Gaza’s needs.
“We know Alon is alive, seriously injured, and needs to be saved,” Ahel said. “He is a citizen of Israel who was kidnapped from Israel — it’s his right to come home.”