October 7 · Personal story
David Cunio
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Nir Oz
Current outcome
Released alive · October 13, 2025
Released from captivity in Gaza alive and reunited with his family in Israel.
01
Life before
David grew up in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where his work as an electrician and his family life belonged to the same close community. He and Sharon had been together for twelve years and were raising their twin daughters, Emma and Yuli. Their house welcomed neighbors and filled with the ordinary markers of childhood: music, birthdays, paddling pools on the lawn, a trampoline and visits to the kibbutz pool. David and Emma shared a small ritual at the grill, standing together while he barbecued for the family. That scene, remembered by the community, says more about his place in the household than a list of roles: he was a father making room for a daughter beside him, in a home shaped by kinship and open doors. He also acted in films before the attack, but his family and the daily life they built in Nir Oz remain central to accounts of him.
02
Abduction
On October 7, 2023, David, Sharon and their daughters were sheltering at home with Sharon’s sister Danielle and niece Emilia, who had come for the holiday. After the electricity failed, the family stayed together in the safe room while attackers tried to enter. When they could not break in, they set the house on fire. The family escaped through the safe-room window and was separated outside. David and Yuli were captured near a neighbor’s house. Sharon was taken separately with Emma, Danielle and Emilia; the girls and their mother were not kept together throughout the abduction. Emma was separated from her aunt after they crossed into Gaza and later brought to the place where David, Sharon and Yuli were held.
03
Captivity
David spent two years in captivity before his release in October 2025. In a January 2026 interview, he described underground rooms and passages, severe deprivation and pressure from captors who repeatedly told him that Sharon had moved on. He kept a rubber band belonging to his daughters and necklaces he had made for them from date stones. He described praying every day and imagining conversations with Sharon and the girls. These small reminders of home helped him endure the long separation. Other captives also helped him through moments of despair. As hostages were released in early 2025, David remained behind; he recalled being happy for those leaving while fearing that his own release might never come.
04
Return
On October 13, 2025, David and his younger brother Ariel were released alive in the final hostage deal. David had been separated from Sharon and the twins when they were released in November 2023; he returned to a family that had spent nearly two years waiting and campaigning for him. The community account records that the family was reunited in Israel after his release. Returning meant meeting his daughters again after their own captivity and childhood had continued without him. The reunion was a beginning, not a rewind: each family member carried experiences the others could not share. David came home alongside his brother, and the two were reunited with their mother before they returned to their own families.
05
Aftermath
In January 2026, David spoke publicly about the work of coming home and rebuilding family life after captivity. He described the strain of returning to ordinary routines with young children after a long separation, and acknowledged that reunion did not erase what had happened. His words keep the story close to daily life: parenthood, partnership and trying to be present again. The Nir Oz community remembers him at home with Sharon and the twins, as a father who stood with Emma at the grill and made an everyday ritual into shared time. That memory does not summarize his whole life, but it gives the public story a human measure beyond the days he was held.