Freed Israeli hostage tells CNN that Hamas kept her in Gaza hospital with dozens of others

It has been more than 50 days since Hamas men freed Sharon Aloni Cunio and her three-year-old twin daughters, but she remains haunted by the time she spent as a hostage – most of which she says was spent in a Gaza hospital – and longs to see her husband, who remains in Palestinian territory.

“I’m a mother and a father now,” she told anchor Anderson Cooper of CNN this Wednesday (17).

But when her daughters are out of sight, she watches videos and listens to voicemails from her husband, David Cunio, “to feel connected to him – but I'm quite depressed.”

Aloni Cunio's family was among more than 250 people kidnapped on October 7 and taken to Gaza during Hamas attacks on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

She told Cooper that although her family was separated in the chaos of the attacks, the four were reunited in captivity when Hamas hid them alongside dozens of other hostages held at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis.

In a report that potentially supports US and Israeli intelligence assessments that the hospitals were used to house hostages, Aloni Cunio said there were three rooms in the Nasser hospital, each containing between 10 and 12 prisoners and which were cared for by a nurse every day.

“He knew who we were [reféns] and agreed,” she said.

A CNN cannot independently verify Aloni Cunio's account.

The 34-year-old also told Cooper that although she was released alongside her twins, Yuli and Emma, ​​during a week-long truce in late November, her freedom was bittersweet as she was forced to leave David back.

“My mind could not be happy with the fact that we were released because of my concerns for David and his health… and his mental state,” she said.

Kidnapped and separated

On October 7, Hamas men set fire to their home on the Nir Oz kibbutz while the family hid in a safe room next to Aloni Cunio's sister and daughter – Danielle Aloni and Amelia.

They were all kidnapped as they fled the burning house, but in the confusion Aloni Cunio and her husband became separated from one of the twins, Emma, ​​and feared the worst had happened to her.

Aloni Cunio was taken to Gaza on a tractor with David and Yuli and kept in a house guarded by two Hamas militants. On the ninth day there, a neighboring house was bombed and she says they were taken by ambulance to Nasser hospital.

“They brought an ambulance [e] They disguised David as a corpse. They dressed me in traditional Arab clothes and dressed Yuli on me and covered her with a sheet,” she said. “There were about three quarters of hostages [no hospital]. Each had 10 to 12 people, in small rooms of around 10 square meters. Therefore, there is not much space”, he added.

It was there that she finally found Emma. Hamas men wanted to film the family “and suddenly I heard a baby's voice crying outside the door” that sounded like Emma's, she said.

At first she thought she was hallucinating, but someone walked in with Emma and handed her to Aloni Cunio “like a package,” she said.

It took a few nights to calm Emma down, as “she would wake up screaming and not calm down for hours,” causing the militants to “scream at us to be quiet,” she said.

Aloni Cunio spoke of the harsh living conditions they faced in captivity. They slept on a bloody pillow and there was a bathroom outside the room, but the door could take hours to open – a torment, especially when “we all had diarrhea and vomiting”.

At one point they were given a bucket and cup to shower in, but she said she was only able to shower five or six times in the two months they were there. They were barely fed and she described the food they received as moldy.

All this time, the situation was affecting the parents. Aloni Cunio did not take his medication for depression and says he “cried almost every day”. David’s frustration led him to “hit himself in the face sometimes until it bled,” she added.

“He asked me to fight for him”

Even when she learned she would be released, there was little reason to celebrate.

David was removed from the room and Hamas told him that the agreement reached with Israel was to send back only women and children. He was also told that he would be taken to the place where the other men were being held.

“We just sat there and cried and I begged him not to go and he told me he was really scared and asked me to fight for him,” she said.

She even tried to convince David to let her stay with him and for the twins to return to Israel alone.

“We have an amazing family on both sides, I know they will take good care of them,” she said of the conversation she had with him. But in the end, she had no choice and David was taken away on November 24th.

Days later, the Red Cross took Aloni Cunio and his daughters back to Israel.

Now she watches from afar, but each report of a hostage's death in captivity makes her even more determined to secure the release of David and the other 104 hostages Israel believes are still alive in Gaza.

“Everything needs to be done to make a deal and bring them home,” she said, adding that she wants David to know she is fighting for him.

“Because you deserve it, and I love you and I can’t wait to see you.”