Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, freed hostages Iair Horn and Sharon Alony Cunio on Tuesday demanded the return of those remaining in Hamas captivity, blaming lawmakers and the government for failing to secure their release.
Alony Cunio, who was freed in a November 2023 hostage-ceasefire deal along with her two young daughters, Yuli and Emma, but whose husband David Cunio and brother-in-law Ariel Cunio remain hostage, said that lawmakers were doing “the exact opposite of bringing [the hostages] back.”
“Why aren’t you by our side — is it because they’re not your family members?” she asked members of the key defense panel. “How much longer will I lie to my daughters, telling them [that their father will be released] any minute now?”
“How much more can I take? This is daily abuse. Why do I have to come here and reopen my trauma just to fight for my husband and brother-in-law?” she said. “There are things I experienced in captivity that I can’t talk about because I’m so ashamed. Why don’t we hear from you?”
She declared, “It’s shameful that you have not a shred of compassion for us or for them. I’m sorry I have to come and disrupt your agenda just to remind you that there are still 48 hostages there. I hope this moves you — even just a little.”
Alony Cunio said that she and her young twin daughters were “broken” by the absence of their father and husband.
“Who are you to decide what is the price of my husband [in a deal]? I’m at home with two 5-year-old girls, broken. And every day I’m broken anew. Every day you kill us again. Us and them,” she said.
The Cunio family was taken by terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. The family was dragged to Gaza on a stolen tractor and at one stage, lost track of Emma, then three.
Sharon, David and Yuli were held for 10 days in a Palestinian home, before they were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis. Three days later, a man arrived and handed over Emma, whom they had not seen in nearly two weeks.
Horn, who was abducted from his Nir Oz home on October 7 and released from Hamas captivity in February 2025 as part of a mediated ceasefire-hostage release deal, but whose brother Eitan remains captive, told the lawmakers a deal “is probably the best way to release the rest of the hostages.”
“My heart is broken. What happened yesterday was another blow,” he said, referring to the four IDF soldiers killed in a Hamas attack on the outskirts of Gaza City early Monday morning.
Horn recalled an occasion on which he helped his younger brother Eitan run for his life in Gaza while Israeli forces bombed near the tunnel in which they were being held.
“[Eitan] is not a small person, nor is he athletic, and after the bomb you have to run because in addition to the missile there are poisonous gases,” Horn said, sobbing. “While running, he sat down and told me, ‘Leave me here.’ But this is my little brother, I will not give up on him.”
“I’m stuck on October 7. The whole family is stuck. I’ll probably never get over it. I’ll cope, but I think the country is in distress, the people of Israel are in distress, and in order to begin to heal, we need to end this whole thing — the entire war — and bring back the hostages, and go back to trying to be something closer to a proper country and society,” he said.
Eitan Horn was abducted from Iair’s Nir Oz home on October 7. The Kfar Saba resident had gone to visit his brother for the holidays.
The kibbutz was the community hardest hit during the Hamas-led onslaught, with 117 of its 400 residents either kidnapped or murdered during the massacre.
Four men — Eitan Horn, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio and Matan Zangauker — are presumed to be the only remaining living hostages taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The families of the hostages held in Gaza have said they are deeply concerned for their loved ones as the IDF’s Gaza City operation intensifies, citing the murder of six hostages in a Rafah tunnel last year as their captors heard Israeli troops nearing.
According to Channel 13 news, the military admits it has incomplete intelligence on the locations of the hostages in Gaza, and has assessed that Hamas may try to move captives into Gaza City ahead of the intensified IDF operation there.
IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir has been widely reported to oppose the Gaza City takeover plan, and has urged ministers from Netanyahu’s hardline cabinet to instead reach a hostage-ceasefire deal. Polls consistently show a large majority of the country supports such an agreement.
Zamir has reportedly tried to reassure the families of hostages, saying in a recent meeting with them that “the operation will be conducted by me, with responsibility toward the troops and the hostages,” according to Channel 12 news.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Israel had accepted the new US ceasefire-hostage proposal, and gave Hamas what he said was his “last warning” to sign on as well. Israel has not confirmed accepting Trump’s offer, but it is “very seriously considering” the proposal, according to a source close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, an Arab mediating source told The Times of Israel on Monday that the hostage deal framework is unlikely to succeed.
Agencies contributed to this report.