Freed hostage says in Hamas captivity, every day ‘a Russian roulette’

Freed hostage Sharon Alony-Cunio tells Reuters Hamas captivity was “a Russian roulette,” saying she feared she and her two young daughters could be executed any day.

“Every minute is critical. The conditions there are not good and the days go on forever,” she says. “It’s a Russian roulette. You don’t know whether tomorrow morning they’ll keep you alive or kill you, just because they want to or just because their backs are against the wall,” she says.

Cunio, 34, and twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, 3, were released on November 27 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. The twins’ father David, 34, is still held in Gaza.

“Every day there is crying, frustration and anxiety. How long are we going to be here? Have they forgotten about us? Have they given up on us?

“My children are torn,” she says. “I am torn without my second half, the love of my life, the father of my daughters who ask me every day, where is daddy?”

She says her husband was with them until three days before their release. “I am petrified I will get bad news that he is no longer alive,” she says.

“We are not just names on a poster. We are human beings, flesh and blood. The father of my girls is there, my partner, and many other fathers, children, mothers, brothers.”