‘No longer the same little girls’: Hostage David Cunio’s twin daughters celebrate fifth birthday

Former hostage Sharon Aloni Cunio, whose husband, David Cunio, is still held in Hamas captivity, shares a photo of the couple’s twin daughters, Emma and Yuli, marking their fifth birthday — their second birthday without their father.

The twin girls were taken captive with their parents from their Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, and freed along with their mother in November 2023. David remains captive in Gaza.

Aloni Cunio shares a photo of her daughters taken by photographer Ziv Koren with Hanoch Daum, an Israeli comic who shares images and stories of survivors and victims of October 7, as well as stories of reservists and their families.

“Hi Hanoch, my name is Sharon Cunio, the mother of Emma and Yuli, who at their young age hold the grim title of being captivity survivors, and the wife of David, who has been wasting away for 636 nights and days in the tunnels of Gaza,” writes Cunio.

“Emma and Yuli celebrated their 5th birthday yesterday without their father — for the second year in a row. The last time David saw them, they were 3 years old! They are no longer the same little girls he once saw.”

“Through you, I want to appeal to every citizen of Israel: Please share the photo of Yuli and Emma and join us in demanding the return of their father, David, home – along with his brother Ariel and all the hostages. They need him, I need him – we cannot heal without him.”