Freed Hostage Arbel Yehoud Reveals Harrowing Abuse in Gaza

After 482 days in Hamas captivity, Arbel Yehoud is finally home. But the story she now shares reveals the depths of cruelty she endured and the extraordinary strength that carried her through.

In a powerful interview with Israel’s Channel 12 news program “Ulpan Shishi,” Yehoud, 30, disclosed that she was sexually assaulted “almost every day in captivity” after being abducted during the October 7, 2023 massacre.

Held in Gaza for more than a year, Yehoud described prolonged physical, psychological and sexual abuse. She was kept in extended isolation, frequently starved, and suffered broken ribs during her imprisonment. The trauma was relentless.

“There were moments when I thought that was the only way out,” she said, recounting three separate suicide attempts during her captivity.

What stopped her, she explained, was love.

Her partner, Ariel Cunio, was kidnapped alongside her on October 7 before the two were separated by their captors. In the early months of captivity, they managed to smuggle brief love notes through intermediaries fragile threads of hope in an unbearable darkness.

That contact ended when their captors threatened further harm if Cunio mentioned her name again. For over a year, both lived in agonizing uncertainty, not knowing whether the other was alive.

“Every time I remembered Ariel, it gave me the strength to keep breathing,” Yehoud said.

On January 30, 2025, she was finally released forced to walk alone through a crowd of armed terrorists. Even in that moment of supposed freedom, fear gripped her. “My mind was trying to understand am I free? But still surrounded by them?” she recalled. She feared being dragged back at any second.

After 738 days in captivity, Cunio was also released. The couple has since reunited and is now trying to rebuild their lives.

The scars remain. Sleepless nights, flashbacks and deep trauma are part of their daily reality. Yet Yehoud’s testimony is not only one of suffering it is one of survival, devotion and the refusal to surrender hope.

Her story is a stark reminder of the atrocities committed on October 7 and the urgent moral imperative to bring every remaining hostage home. It is also a testament to the unbreakable bond between two people who clung to the belief that they would see each other again and did.

Israel continues to stand with its survivors, honoring their courage and demanding justice for the crimes committed against them.

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