738 Days in Hell: Former Hostage David Cunio Breaks Silence on Surviving the Tunnels

The survival of David Cunio is a story of extreme physical endurance and a desperate battle against psychological warfare. After spending over two years in the hands of Hamas terrorists, Cunio sat down for an exclusive interview with Channel 12 to recount his 738 day journey from the burning ruins of Kibbutz Nir Oz to the depths of the Gaza tunnels. He spoke candidly about the cruelty of his captors, who systematically lied to him about his wife, Sharon, and their twin daughters, Emma and Yuli. "At first, you don't believe the lies," David shared, describing how terrorists told him his wife had moved on to another man and stopped fighting for him. "But as time passes, it seeps in. This garbage slowly penetrates your mind. As unreal as it sounds, in there, it sounds the most real."

The nightmare began on October 7, 2023, when terrorists set fire to the Cunio home. David tried to protect his family from the thick smoke with a blanket, eventually attempting to escape through a window with his daughter Yuli, only to be seized in the yard. In the chaos of the kidnapping, David saw Sharon being dragged away and realized they were being separated. During the transport into Gaza, an Israeli helicopter fired on the vehicle, an incident that tragically killed kibbutz member Efrat Katz and left the Cunio family wounded by shrapnel. For the first several days in Gaza, David and Sharon were haunted by the disappearance of their other twin, Emma, who had been taken separately. "We were completely losing our minds thinking Emma wasn't with us," David recalled, noting that Sharon blamed herself constantly while they were held in a state of starvation and terror.

The family was eventually reunited in a cynical propaganda move by Hamas at Nasser Hospital, where Emma was brought in a state of severe neglect. At first, the three year old did not recognize her parents, but she began to calm down only when Sharon sang her a familiar Hebrew nursery rhyme. However, the relief was short lived. On the 49th day of the war, David was forced to say goodbye as Sharon and the girls were released in a deal. "The most terrible moment of my life was when I parted from Yuli, Emma, and Sharon," David said. He initially believed he would soon follow, telling himself, "Now you just need to survive, easy peasy." Instead, the situation became far worse.

David spent the remainder of his captivity underground, experiencing starvation and physical abuse. He described a grueling 13 hour march through 20 kilometers of narrow tunnels, some only half a meter wide, while hostages were bleeding and exhausted. At one point, he was confronted by Yahya Sinwar himself. The Hamas leader spoke to David’s best friend, Yarden Bibas, who had been told by terrorists that his wife Shiri and their children were killed. David tried to keep Yarden’s hope alive by telling him the terrorists were liars. Throughout the darkness, David clung to a pink hair tie belonging to his daughters and necklaces he carved from date pits to stay connected to his reality.

It was not until October 2025 that David was finally released in a second deal alongside his brother Ariel and other hostages. Upon returning, he had to face the emotional weight of two years of lost time, seeing how much his daughters had grown and re-learning how to be a father. He shared that the girls are slowly beginning to trust him again and want his presence nearby. While the trauma of the tunnels remains, David and Sharon hope to one day build a new home in a new kibbutz, raising their daughters in the peace that was stolen from them on that black Saturday.