Israeli hostage reveals how she survived being tortured and sexually assaulted ‘almost every single day’ during 482 days in Gaza – with only the thought of her kidnapped boyfriend keeping her going

More than a year has passed since the world saw the terrified face of Arbel Yehoud, forced to march towards freedom through a mob of Hamas terrorists.

But now the 30-year-old feels strong enough to reveal that this sickening display was the latest act in a horrific campaign of harassment launched during the 482 days he was held in Gaza.

Motivated to speak out after seeing fellow captive Romi Gönen, 25, bravely describe how she was sexually assaulted by her captors, Arbel told me she endured it “almost every day in captivity.”

He was so bad at being alone that he attempted suicide many times.

‘I tried to finish it three times,’ says Arbel. ‘I felt like I couldn’t go on. ‘There were moments when I thought this was the only way out.’

But her love for her 28-year-old boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, whom she broke up with after being kidnapped, kept her alive.

Of her suicidal thoughts, she says: ‘Each time, I remembered Ariel, and that gave me the strength to keep breathing.

It is understandable that Arbel does not want to go into further detail about this abuse. However, he describes how he was kept in solitary confinement, starved, psychologically, sexually and physically abused, and had two broken ribs. Above all else, what made him despair the most was being separated from the love of his life.

Arbel Yehoud was kidnapped with her boyfriend Ariel Cunio

Arbel Yehoud is reunited with his family after 482 days as a hostage in Gaza

Incredibly, the couple managed to smuggle love notes to each other for the first few months before guards cut off their contact.

When he was released on January 30 last year, knowing he would be leaving Ariel in Gaza scared him more than any gunman ever could.

But after traveling the world to free him, he was released on October 13 last year and now Arbel and Ariel detail how their extraordinary love survived 15 months in hell.

Paying tribute to Romi’s bravery, as she detailed how she was attacked by three men in the first weeks of her capture, Ariel says: ‘Since returning, I have not been able to follow the stories of other survivors.

‘But when I saw the trailer for Romi’s story, I felt different. It was hard for me, but I finally decided to watch the episode about him.

‘I realized that what Romi described experiencing once was what I experienced almost every day in captivity.’

Arbel had been living a quiet life with Ariel at Kibbutz Nir Oz since 2018, raising a two-month-old puppy named Murph and planning a future full of marriage and children.

But everything changed on the morning of October 7, 2023. Palestinian terrorists crossed the Gaza border, killing, raping and kidnapping everyone they could find.

The moment Arbel and Ariel reunited in Israel on October 13, 2025

Arbel and Ariel hid under their bed with Murph.

“I put my hand over his mouth to try to stop him barking… but it didn’t help,” Arbel said. He said it reminded him of Holocaust testimonies where mothers accidentally strangled their children trying to stop them crying while the Nazis searched for them.

‘They found us, dragged us out and shot Murph in front of us. We heard Murph crying until she died.’

Arbel was beaten and Ariel was subjected to harsh blows to her head until she bled. Ariel’s brother David, his wife Sharon and their children were taken hostage. Arbel’s brother Dolev went missing and was later pronounced dead. Arbel said it devastated him.

After three hours in Gaza, they were separated and each was sent to different hiding places. Both believed this would be temporary. Both believed that survival depended on staying connected.

“I drove them crazy asking questions about him,” Ariel says. ‘I wanted to hear it. I wanted to see him. “They realized I wasn’t going to stop until they gave me something,” says Ariel.

‘They finally let us write notes to each other and smuggled them out with messengers,’ says Arbel.

The messages were short and powerful:

‘I am good. I love you. Stay strong.’

Arbel and Ariel believed that survival depended on staying connected. Photo credit: Nataly Bendersky Shalem

Ariel Cunio is accompanied by Israeli soldiers and medics as he and Arbel Yehoud arrive at Sheba Tel HaShomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan on October 13, 2025

Arbel was released last year alone in the middle of a mafia surrounded by hundreds of terrorists.

Looking pale and terrified, Arbel says he is worried he will be kidnapped by other gangs

‘I think it was coming from a place where they wanted to get more intelligence from us. ‘They wanted to silence us too.’

‘It gave me strength,’ Ariel said. ‘It reminded me that I’m not alone, that someone is fighting with me, even silently.’

‘I was always worried that Ariel would try to escape and risk her life. So these letters calmed me down.”

But it stopped after a few months. ‘They told Ariel they would kill me if she said my name again.’

They lived in isolation and fear for more than a year.

‘Every day I hoped he would be safe. I didn’t know if he was alive or injured. This fear was worse than anything else.’

‘The mental toll was insane. Being separated, not knowing if he was okay or not… I was going crazy sometimes. “I was walking in circles and banging my head just to relieve the tension,” Ariel says.

‘I tried to finish it three times,’ he said. ‘Thinking about Ariel, thinking about our life together, kept me hanging on.’

‘They gave me a notebook. I would draw a lot of things about Central America from our trip.

‘Or I would draw us under a tree, a family or children.

‘It gave me good thoughts. “That’s what made me stronger.”

While in captivity and mistreated, Arbel endured interrogations, forced conversion attempts, and starvation as they kept him in refugee camps. There were initial discussions about selling them or smuggling them out of Gaza.

‘I was kept with a four-month-old baby. He was 15 months old when I was released. They carry knives from the age of seven or eight.

‘Three days before I left, the baby pointed a gun at me. He was playing with it. ‘He pointed it at me while I begged his mother to put it down.’

Arbel, who was first released, mingled alone among a crowd surrounded by hundreds of terrorists. Looking pale and terrified, Arbel says he’s worried he’ll be kidnapped by other gangs.

‘I remember walking outside and seeing that sea of ​​green headbands,’ she said.

‘I was the only woman. My mind was trying to process; am I free? But am I still surrounded by them?

‘I was so scared but I knew I had to survive. My thoughts were about Ariel; I needed to get back to him.’ A year later he met Gadi Moses, an Israeli captive, for the first time. ‘I was already in a state of shock.’

Ariel was released after 738 days in captivity.

“I haven’t really come back to life since I returned,” Arbel said.

‘It was my thoughts that held him back,’ Arbel said. ‘There is a possibility that we will meet again. So that we can still have a life together.’

Now free, they face a new challenge: rehabilitation, sleepless nights, flashbacks and trauma. I am relearning how to live again, how to trust the world. Their home in Nir Oz is gone. They have nowhere to go back. But they have each other.

Arbel and Ariel are raising money for their rehabilitation. You can support them by donating here.