Freed hostages warn renewed Gaza fighting risks lives of remaining Hamas captives

Freed hostages Yarden Bibas, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert write on social media about the fears and trepidation they’re experiencing since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas and restarted strikes on Gaza early Tuesday morning.

“Israel’s decision to return to fighting brings me back to Gaza, to the moments where I heard the sounds of explosions around me and where I feared for my life as I was afraid that the tunnel where I was being held would collapse,” Bibas writes in English on social media. “My wife and children were kidnapped alive and were brutally murdered in captivity. The military pressure endangers the hostages while an agreement brings them home.”

Bibas shares an old photo of himself with longtime friends David Cunio and Ariel Cunio, brothers from Kibbutz Nir Oz who are still held hostage in Gaza.

“I am petrified for my best friends, David and Ariel Cunio,” he says. “I lost my Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, but David can still return alive to Sharon, Emma and Yuli and Ariel to his partner Arbel Yehud and his family.”

A message from Yarden Bibas:

“Israel’s decision to return to fighting brings me back to Gaza, to the moments where I heard the sounds of explosions around me and where I feared for my life as I was afraid that the tunnel where I was being held would collapse.

My wife and… pic.twitter.com/zfkugtaW5o

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) March 18, 2025

Eliya Cohen says that since hearing about strikes on Gaza, he has can’t manage to sit still.

“My brother, Alon Ohel, is wrapped in bicycle chains with chains on his legs, and eats one pita with mold and two spoons of fava beans each day,” writes Cohen, referring to hostage Alon Ohel, who was left behind in the Gazan tunnels when Cohen, Or Levy and Eli Sharabi were freed last month, during the first stage of the hostage release-ceasefire deal.

“It’s just impossible to grasp, and there are no words to describe the lack of understanding in our country about what is taking place 50 meters underground,” says Cohen. “And if there is any understanding, then how to explain this abandonment and lack of attention to human life?”

Freed hostage, Omer Wenkert, shares similar thoughts.

“Have you listened to a word of what we freed hostages have been telling you? Do you not see us?” writes Wenkert. “This dangerous decision will have an untold effect on those of us who are still held there. And I say ‘on us’ because those who are there are me, and I am them. I’m still there! Until the last hostage is released I am still there!”