Among the longest-held living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza, brothers David and Ariel Cunio, have begun speaking publicly for the first time since their release, describing their prolonged captivity marked by starvation, abuse and constant fear that escape would cost their loved ones their lives.
The Cunio brothers, kidnapped from their homes during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, are giving their first joint interviews as part of an international media tour coordinated by Fuente Latina, a nonprofit news organization that works to bring accurate reporting and firsthand testimonies about Israel, the Middle East and antisemitism to Spanish-language media worldwide.
Ahead of their media appearances, the brothers spoke exclusively with Fuente Latina, which provided their testimonies to JNS.
The Cunio brothers were released from Hamas captivity on Oct.13, 2025, as part of a hostage-release agreement under the Gaza ceasefire plan. After 738 days in captivity, Ariel Cunio said he believed for much of that time that he would never see his brother David again.
“In captivity, every day I planned an escape,” Ariel said. “But I knew that if I got out, I would be lynched in the street. And even if I survived and got home somehow, I feared discovering later that my brother or my girlfriend had been killed because I escaped.”
The brothers, both Argentine-Israeli citizens, were among eight members of the Cunio family abducted during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, making them the largest single family taken hostage that day.
Ariel described watching his brother Eitan’s home burn as Hamas terrorists attacked their kibbutz. In a family WhatsApp message sent shortly before he was taken, Ariel wrote, “Here begins the nightmare.”
Terrorists entered his safe room, killed his puppy, and abducted him and his girlfriend, Arbel, on a motorcycle. During the journey into Gaza, they fell multiple times, and their captors intervened to prevent a mob celebrating the attack from lynching them.
Ariel said he was held above ground in civilian buildings and observed weapons stored in UNRWA-marked bags and in areas designated as humanitarian zones.
“My captors tried to convince me to convert to Islam,” he said. “They told me it was a pity that I would die and go to hell as a Jew instead of going to paradise as a Muslim.”
David, 35, and Ariel, 28, were held separately throughout their captivity and had no information about whether their parents, siblings, partners or children were alive.
David was confined deep underground in Hamas tunnels and, at one point, was held alongside Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two young children were murdered in captivity. He said he also encountered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during his imprisonment.
Both brothers described enduring prolonged starvation, torture, psychological abuse, religious coercion and frequent transfers between locations in the Gaza Strip.
The brothers’ international media tour began with a private meeting in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Javier Milei and will continue with interviews in Spanish in Argentina, Mexico and the United States, Fuente Latina said.
“Their captivity experience is distinct from that of any other hostages held in Gaza,” it said.
