Former hostage Arbel Yehoud addressed the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee at the Knesset on Monday and called for a halt to the war in Gaza and the release of all hostages through a deal.
“I am Arbel Yehoud, a proud Jew who survived alone the horrific captivity by terrorist organizations in Gaza for 482 days until I returned to my family and people. I have come to shout their cries for the release of my brothers and sisters still held captive,” she said.
“Do you think it is reasonable or right that I should be the one here shouting for the freedom of my beloved Ariel, his brother David, and the other hostages?” she asked. “They are held as pawns for the terrorists’ lives and the survival of the Netanyahu government.”
She shared that, “when I was there, I thought my family and the Israeli government would act to release me as their one and only priority. I was right about my family, but wrong about the government, which even today – 591 days since the war began – chooses to continue the military path that endangers the lives of the hostages.
“I felt the roar of rockets, the pounding of shells, and their shock waves on my body. On the night Luis and Fernando were rescued in Rafah while I was held nearby, I chose to say goodbye to my family because I felt it was my last day,” she recalled.
Conditions in captivity felt like a concentration camp
“Know that when Gazans close to some of the families who held me were hurt by IDF activity, I was severely beaten and even thrown into isolation for many days without proper food or hygiene – conditions like those in concentration camps during the Holocaust,” Yehoud said.
“I survived because I held on to hope and the commitment to return to my family, especially to my brother Dolev’s children, after I learned of his death,” she explained.” That commitment carried me minute by minute for 482 days, even in moments of despair when I was humiliated and subjected to psychological terror and attempts to break my spirit. I did not break. Our loved ones there endure similar and worse conditions day and night.”
The released hostage then demanded an end to the war: “I demand that you, ministers and Knesset members, act to stop the fighting and bring them back to us. Having been there, I know that only through negotiations is this possible. The terrorists do not value their own lives or the lives of Gaza civilians, and their deaths in the war do not deter them.
“We are not like them in how we value life. Therefore, you must release our loved ones and prevent their deaths, as well as the bloodshed of the soldiers, sons, fathers, and brothers of us all, and bring Israel’s fallen home for burial,” she said. “My recovery journey and that of other survivors cannot begin until everyone returns. Physically, we are here, but mentally, we are still captive with them.”
Yehoud said, “Government ministers and Knesset members, look at me and see whom you have abandoned and chosen to sacrifice as a solution to the Gaza problem. Like me, 58 other Israeli citizens are held captive, who are not only suffering but dying. Your hands will be stained with their blood and the blood of soldiers if you do not stop this war. As parents and grandparents, I ask you to see the hostages as your own children and grandchildren and bring them back to the family of the people of Israel.”
In closing, she called on the public “to take to the streets and halt the country’s daily life until all the hostages return. Without their return, we cannot begin rebuilding, and the dead cannot be buried. We will not return to be the people we once were” or “the country we chose to live in and to which our ancestors returned after 2,000 years of exile.”