By Eli Berlzon and Michal Yaakov Itzhaki
YAVNE, Israel (Reuters) – Israeli Sharon Alony-Cunio survived 52 days as a hostage in Gaza together with her two little ladies earlier than she was launched in an Israel-Hamas swap deal. However she fears for the lifetime of her husband who continues to be captive within the bombarded Palestinian enclave.
Now again dwelling together with her twin three-year-olds, Julie and Emma, she pleads for the remaining 137 hostages to be freed. “Each minute is essential. The situations there will not be good and the times go on for ever,” she instructed Reuters in her first interview.
“It is a Russian roulette. You do not know whether or not tomorrow morning they’re going to maintain you alive or kill you, simply because they wish to or simply as a result of their backs are towards the wall,” stated Alony-Cunio, 34.
Alony-Cunio was one in every of 240 folks taken hostage on Oct. 7 by Hamas gunmen who burst by way of the border with Israel and killed round 1,200 folks.
The militants who took over her kibbutz, Nir Oz, which lies slightly over a mile from Gaza, set fireplace to her home and took her away at gunpoint after she climbed out the window.
She was taken throughout the border together with her husband David and one in every of their twins, she stated. Their second daughter was held individually in Gaza for 10 days earlier than they had been reunited in captivity with 12 different hostages underneath situations she stated had been powerful, notably for kids.
“Everybody gave up meals for them (the ladies). You do not know if within the night there will likely be a pita (bread) so within the morning you avoid wasting for the night. Every little thing may be very calculated, 1 / 4 of a pita, half a pita to maintain for the subsequent morning.”
Typically they had been fed dates and cheese and typically they’d break up meat rice and rations for six among the many 12 of them.
Ready to be allowed to go to the bathroom was an issue for the ladies, she stated, so they’d to make use of a sink and a garbage bin. “Typically when there was an influence reduce, they allow us to open the door, they drew the curtain after which we might whisper. How do you retain a toddler collectively for 12 hours with whispers solely?”
Her group of hostages was held above floor and moved just a few occasions, she stated, however with recollections nonetheless uncooked and together with her husband nonetheless inside, Alony-Cunio was reluctant to offer extra particulars of her seize and time as a hostage.
However one of many greatest hardships, she stated, was merely not figuring out what was being finished to get them out.
“On daily basis there may be crying, frustration and anxiousness. How lengthy are we going to be right here? Have they forgotten about us? Have they given up on us?”
A seven-day truce noticed greater than 100 hostages launched. The remaining are nonetheless being held incommunicado as Israel bombards Gaza vowing to take out Hamas. Greater than 18,000 folks have been killed in Gaza, based on native well being authorities.
Many households of the 137 hostages nonetheless in Gaza, whose names and photographs on posters line the streets of Israel, are scared.
“My kids are torn,” Alony-Cunio stated. “I’m torn with out my second half, the love of my life, the daddy of my daughters who ask me day-after-day, the place is daddy?”
David was separated from them three days earlier than their launch on Nov. 27, earlier than preventing resumed. Getting the remaining hostages out must be prime precedence, she stated.
“I’m petrified I’ll get unhealthy information that he’s not alive,” Alony-Cunio stated.
“We’re not simply names on a poster. We’re human beings, flesh and blood. The daddy of my ladies is there, my companion, and plenty of different fathers, kids, moms, brothers.”
(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Enhancing by Nick Macfie)
