Sharon Alony-Cunio survived 52 days as a hostage in the Gaza Strip with her two little girls before she was released in an Israel-Hamas swap deal. But she fears for the life of her husband who is still captive by the terror organization.
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Now back home with her twin three-year-olds, Julie and Emma, she pleads for the remaining 137 hostages to be freed.
"Every minute is critical. The conditions there are not good and the days go on forever," she told Reuters in her first interview since being released. "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."
Alony-Cunio, 34, was one of 240 people taken hostage on Oct. 7 by the terrorists who had burst through the border with Israel and killed around 1,200 people.
The gunmen who took over Alony-Cunio's kibbutz, Nir Oz, which lies a little over a mile from Gaza, set fire to her house and took her away at gunpoint after she climbed out the window.
She was taken across the border with her husband David and one of their twins, she said. Their second daughter was held separately in Gaza for 10 days before they were reunited in captivity with 12 other hostages under conditions she said were tough, particularly for children.
"Everyone gave up food for them (the girls). You don't know if in the evening there will be a pita (bread) so in the morning you save some for the evening. Everything is very calculated, a quarter of a pita, half a pita to keep for the next morning."
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