As David Cunio marks another birthday in Gaza, his wife, an ex-hostage, pleads: ‘Our daughters need their father’

Former hostage Sharon Aloni Cunio pleads for her husband David Cunio to be released from Gaza as he marks his second birthday in captivity.

“David misses Emma and Yuli, and they miss him. Not a day goes by without them asking, ‘When will Daddy come back from Gaza?’ They need their father to heal. To recover. To rebuild trust. And he’s not here,” she says in a statement.

“I’m consumed by longing for the man I love, the one I cannot live without. Every day he doesn’t return deepens their wound – and mine,” she says. “Emma and Yuli need their father. Alive. Breathing. At home. I need my husband here, with me. Bring him back, before the heartbreak becomes a scar that will never fade.”

To mark the occasion, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum releases a video of Aloni Cunio along with her husband’s twin brother and his best friend, Yarden Bibas.

Emma and Yuli need their father David in order to heal from their captivity.

My beloved David is marking his second birthday in captivity today. In a dark tunnel, without us, surrounded only by the sounds of war.

David misses Emma and Yuli, and they miss him. Not a day goes by… pic.twitter.com/EqnJwWlEPk

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) May 20, 2025

Cunio, now 35, was taken hostage from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the onslaught, along with Aloni Cunio, and their 3-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma. Sharon’s sister, Danielle Aloni, 44, and her daughter, Emilia, 5, who were visiting them for the holiday weekend, were also kidnapped by terrorists who stormed their kibbutz home. Cunio’s brother Ariel Cunio was also taken captive, along with his girlfriend Arbel Yehoud.

Aloni Cunio, Aloni, and the three young girls were all released from captivity during a ceasefire in late November 2023. Yehoud was released on January 30, as part of a mediated ceasefire-hostage release deal.