Nir Oz is a small kibbutz close to the Gazan border. In September 2023, it had around 400 residents. On October 7, 38 of those people were murdered and 77 were abducted. A quarter of the entire population of Nir Oz was gone. The kibbutz itself was completely destroyed. The survivors are staying elsewhere now and they will likely never be able to go back home.

.

.

In a kibbutz that small, not only does everyone know everyone, but a lot of people are family. With 77 kidnapped, Nir Oz residents form the largest group of the 240 hostages. Entire families were dragged from their houses. Four generations. From nine month old Kfir Bibas to 86 year old Aryeh Zalmanovich.

This is the story of how nine members of the same extended family were taken hostage. This is the story of the Cunio/Aloni/Yehud family.

David and Sharon Cunio

David Cunio is one of four brothers. One of them, Eitan, is his twin. David and Eitan are both actors. They appeared together in the Israeli film Youth from 2013. At the set of that movie, David met Sharon Aloni. They fell in love, got married and had their adorable twin daughters: Emma and Yuli. They lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz, as did all of David’s brothers and his parents, Silvia and Jose Luis Cunio, who immigrated to Israel from Argentina in 1986.

Danielle and Emilia Aloni

Sharon’s sister Danielle is a single mother of a beautiful 5 year girl, Emilia. They live in Yavne, but the sisters are very close and visit each other a lot. On the day of the Hamas invasion, Danielle and Emilia were staying with the Cunio family.

Ariel Cunio and Arbel Yehud

Ariel Cunio is David’s youngest brother. He has been together with his girlfriend Arbel Yehud for five years. They had been travelling in South and Central America and they had just adopted a puppy, a few weeks before the Hamas invasion. Both Ariel and Arbel were born and raised in Nir Oz, and their families lived there.

Dolev Yehud

Dolev Yehud is Arbel’s older brother. He lived in Nir Oz too, with his wife Sigal and his three children. Dolev is a medical professional and volunteers with two different nonprofit organizations. He suffers from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a chronic autoimmune disease, which he manages with medication.

Hamas invasion

On October 7, 2023, al of these families barricaded themselves in their respective safe rooms while the terrorists roamed through the kibbutz, shouting and shooting. They kept in contact with each other through text, terrified and expecting the worst.

David, Sharon and Danielle hid in their safe room with the three children. At some point, they heard the terrorists in the house, and later, they realized the house had been set on fire. The room filled with smoke and they knew they had two choices: stay in the room and choke to death, or leave the room and face the terrorists. They chose the latter.

Ariel and Arbel were both also abducted from their apartment in the kibbutz. Dolev went out of his house to help the injured people outside, while his wife Sigal, who was nine months pregnant, hid in their safe room with the children. Fortunately, she and the children managed to stay hidden, but Dolev was taken by Hamas.

Months later, Danielle told Ynet this:

“It’s a fear that cannot be explained, these are emotions that the human mind can’t contain. We understand that we are going to end our lives in the cruelest way possible, by inhaling smoke and choking to death. I hug Emilia and say to her, ‘My love, I’m sorry, we’re about to die.’

We left farewell notes, and then I had to choose how I’d die – which death would be easier, quicker. Death by smoke inhalation felt very close. Sharon no longer argued at this point; she got up and helped me open the room’s window. We closed our eyes and waited. We heard gunfire outside, shouting.”

They fully expected to die. But they didn’t. They were taken captive separately, loaded on to a truck with other people, and driven to Gaza. Sharon and Danielle didn’t see each other again during their time in the tunnels of Hamas. Fortunately, they were able to stay with their children.

Sharon, Danielle and the children were hostages for seven weeks. Danielle appeared in a video released by Hamas after several weeks. She was told to say the same thing that the other hostages had to say in all of these videos: blame Israel, tell them to stop fighting so you can go home.

At the end of November, during the week long ceasefire, Sharon, Danielle and the three children were released. But David, Ariel, Arbel and Dolev are still hostages, more than 100 days later. There has been no communication and no updates about their situation.

Silvia and Jose Luis Cunio, the parents of David and Ariel, and Yehi and Yael Yehud, the parents of Arbel and Dolev, are all under incredible stress. They haven’t heard a word about how their children are doing. They are hurting and worried. Yehi said to Ynet: “It feels like a part of the soul is missing, 100 days that feel to us like one long day that never ends.”

Dolev needs medication, that he has not been able to take for more than three months now. The Red Cross has refused to take medication to the hostages and has not visited them. Many of the hostages’ families are upset and angry about this. Some of the hostages are severely ill or wounded and there have been no updates on how they are doing. This is of course completely separate from the fact that Hamas has no right whatsoever to keep these people captive. Whatever they thought they would achieve by doing this, and by commiting the horrific crimes of October 7, is beyond me. All they have achieved is a terrible war and extensive suffering to people on both sides of the divide. They keep telling us to stop fighting, but refuse to give us back what they have taken from us: the hostages.

.

.

Ten days after Dolev was taken, his fourth child was born. Sigal, his wife, called the little girl Dor, a name very close to the name of her father. Sigal and Dolev have been together since they were 12 years old. “My life now is not a life, I’m missing half of it,” she said.

.

Since her return from captivity, Sharon has spoken to the media about the ordeal she went through. She describes how at first, she and David and Yuli were brought to a civilian house and held there. They were worried about Emma, they feared they had lost her forever. Later, it turned out that Emma was with Danielle and Emilia.

After the house they stayed in was bombed, they were brought to the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis and kept prisoner there. After three days there, Emma was brought to them and they were forced to thank their captors on camera.

They had to stay in a small room with a varying number of other hostages. Sharon slept with the two girls on a bloodstained mattress. They got two meals a day, consisting of rice and sometimes mouldy pita bread. Sharon lost 11 kilos and they all got food poisoning at least once.

“A lot of the times, the girls were just crying, saying ‘I’m hungry,’” she said. “It was devastating.”

“Every minute is critical. The conditions there are not good and the days go on for ever. It’s a Russian roulette. You don’t know whether tomorrow morning they’ll keep you alive or kill you, just because they want to or just because their backs are against the wall.” (Haaretz)

She said David blamed himself, because they lived in Nir Oz because of him. When they were told that Sharon and the children were going to be released, but not David, they held each other and cried for hours. David told her: “Fight for me. Don’t give up. Please yell what I cannot yell.”

So this is what she does. She tells her story and campaigns for the release of all the hostages, together with the rest of the families, in Israel and abroad. Her daughters ask for their daddy every day. She doesn’t know what to tell them. She says: “I die of fear every day, that he will be in the next brutal video they release. I am stuck. I’m on hold. For me, life stopped at the moment I was separated from David.” (The Times of Israel)

Hold on, Sharon. Hold on, David, Ariel, Arbel  and Dolev. We are coming for you. 🧡

#bringthemhome

.

—

UPDATE 3/6/24:

The remains of Dolev Yehud have been identified in kibbutz Nir Oz. It turns out he was never abducted, but murdered and burned on October 7, along with so many others. This is devastating news. May his memory forever be a blessing. Dolev flies free now 🦋