Former Hostage Arbel Yehud Describes 482 Days of Captivity in Gaza

Arbel Yehud stood before Israel’s Knesset Constitution Committee with unwavering strength, delivering a heart-rending account of her 482 days held captive in Gaza. Her testimony was more than a personal story it was a call for national conscience, a plea for the lives still hanging in the balance.

“I did not break,” she declared. And with those words, she embodied a spirit that no terror could shatter.

Abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside her partner Ariel Cunio who remains in captivity Yehud’s ordeal was marked by brutal physical abuse, psychological torture, and prolonged isolation at the hands of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists. Her testimony recalled the darkest chapters of Jewish history, comparing the conditions she endured to those of the Holocaust concentration camps.

“I was thrown into solitary confinement, beaten, starved, and treated with unimaginable cruelty,” she told lawmakers. But even in her most harrowing moments, she held fast to a singular hope to return home.

The nightmare intensified during Israeli operations in Rafah. On the night two hostages, Luis and Fernando, were rescued, Yehud feared it would be her last. “I chose to say goodbye to my family because I felt that this was my last day,” she recalled, describing the chaos and proximity of explosions that shook her prison.

Her captors retaliated savagely whenever Israeli strikes impacted their families. For Yehud, this meant more beatings, more isolation, and conditions so dire they mirrored the genocidal horrors of the past. Yet her faith and her identity as a Jew remained her armor. “I am Arbel Yehud, a proud Jew,” she said, “and I have come to cry out for the release of the rest of my brothers and sisters who are still there.”

Her address also carried sharp rebukes for Israeli leadership, whom she accused of sidelining the hostages’ plight in favor of military objectives. “I thought my release would be the supreme goal. I was right about my family not about my government,” she stated with aching clarity.

As of now, 58 hostages remain in Gaza, 36 of whom are believed to be dead. Their fate is uncertain, but their memory and Yehud’s courageous voice is a demand that cannot be ignored.

Israel must continue to fight for every life, not only through military might but through a moral compass rooted in its eternal commitment to human dignity and national unity. The story of Arbel Yehud is not just a tragedy it is a testament to the enduring strength of our people.

Share this story. Let the world hear it. And subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed on the people and values that define Israel.