Yarden Bibas, who was a Hamas hostage for 484 days and whose wife and children were murdered by the terror group in captivity, spoke with Israeli media on Tuesday about his best friend, David Cunio, who remains in captivity.
Yarden, who didn’t want to speak about himself, told Israel’s Channel 12 News in the interview that he and David had been friends since first grade.
“When they were introducing the students, something about his name, about his appearance, caught my eye,” he said. “During the first break I went and actually offered him friendship. I said to him, ‘Do you want to be my friend?'”
Just as Yarden, his wife and children were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, so were David, his wife Sharon and their 3-year-old twin daughters. David’s wife and daughters were released in November 2023 as part of the first ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Yarden saw David in captivity the day of Sharon’s release. “When he saw me for the first time, he was shocked. He was sure he was looking at a ghost. I didn’t recognize him at first either. Somehow, I recognized him. I just went up to him. We hugged. And he hurried on to the next place,” said Yarden.
After the terrorists told Yarden that his wife and children were dead, he asked to be moved to the same location in which David was being held.
“I wanted to be with my closest friend,” he said. “At first I was afraid to ask to move. I didn’t know where he was—with better people, worse people. I knew the people I was with, so maybe it would have been right to stay with them.”
His request was granted and they were held in the same area for two to three weeks. Yarden isn’t sure of the exact length of time.
“The decision to ask to move to him actually saved my life,” Yarden revealed. “Because people I was with were later murdered, those six adults.”
The six hostages he referred to were shot by their captors in a tunnel in Khan Yunis after an Israeli attack in the area, an IDF investigation concluded. They were Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchstab, Yoram Metzger, Haim Perry, Alex Dancyg and Avraham Munder.
At one point, Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar appeared (he was later killed by IDF troops). “I told him, ‘This is my best friend, I want to stay with him,'” said Yarden. “He said, ‘No problem, you stay with him.'”
Yarden and David were separated anyway.
“[David] didn’t understand why they separated us. I didn’t understand why, either,” said Yarden. “To this day I don’t understand why.”
David and Yarden would meet occasionally as they passed by in tunnels. “Sometimes they smuggled us from one place to another, or they were being transferred, so there was always a quick, strong hug and [the words], ‘Keep going. It’ll be okay, brother. I love you. It’ll be okay,'” Yarden recalled.
“After that we split up. I don’t know how he went on. I hope he’s strong. I hope he knows everyone is waiting for him.”
David’s wife Sharon told Channel 12: “I really hoped he would stay with Yarden. One of the released women told me that they saw him underground, and I assumed that they might be together and I hoped.
“That’s what really kept me going until Yarden was released. I didn’t take it easily when he told me that he was with him for a very short time, because I know what it’s like for them to be together. And I know that if it’s already in this catastrophic situation, then at least they should be together, there for each other.”
Sharon went on to say that she feels as though she herself is in captivity.
“I don’t have a daily routine, I’m still there,” she said. “For me, I live for the girls. I live because I’m their mother and I have to take care of them. They don’t have to feel what mom goes through. So there are the morning hours when mom puts on the ‘mom’ mask, and there are the afternoon hours when mom puts on the mask, and the hours in-between are when I collapse.”