Arbel Yehud is the feminine Israeli hostage on the heart of the disaster testing the cease-fire settlement between Israel and Hamas. She was seized through the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, from her residence in Nir Oz, a village in southern Israel close to the border of the Palestinian enclave.
Ms. Yehud, who was 28 on the time, was kidnapped alongside along with her companion, Ariel Cunio, who additionally stays in Gaza.
Ms. Yehud is the final feminine civilian hostage that Israel believes is probably alive. One other civilian girl, Shiri Bibas, stays in Gaza after she was kidnapped from Nir Oz along with her two younger sons, Ariel, who was 4 on the time, and Kfir, who was 9 months. The Israeli army has expressed grave concern for the lives of Ms. Bibas and her youngsters, although their deaths haven’t been confirmed.
Ms. Yehud’s brother, Dolev Yehud, was lacking for months and was additionally assumed to have been kidnapped. It later turned clear that he by no means made it into Gaza: In June 2024, the Israeli authorities declared him useless after his stays had been recognized in Nir Oz via new testing.
Beneath the phrases of the cease-fire deal, Ms. Yehud ought to have been among the many first two teams of hostages launched on Jan. 19 and Jan. 25, in keeping with the Israeli authorities. Israel had demanded that its feminine civilians be launched earlier than the captive feminine troopers, four of whom were released on Saturday.
It seems Ms. Yehud could also be within the custody of one other group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. An official with that group advised The New York Occasions on Sunday that she could be launched earlier than subsequent Saturday.
Simply after midnight on Monday, Israel, Qatar and Hamas introduced {that a} decision had been finalized for the discharge of Arbel Yehud and two different Israeli hostages by subsequent Friday, with three extra hostages to be launched on Saturday. In trade, Israel would start permitting Palestinians in Gaza who had been displaced to return to the north of the enclave, the officers stated.
Ms. Yehud has deep roots locally of Nir Oz as a third-generation member of her household to reside there, in keeping with the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, a grass-roots group that advocates for the discharge of the hostages. She labored locally’s training system earlier than changing into a information at GrooveTech, an revolutionary studying heart in southern Israel that focuses on house exploration and expertise.
Ms. Yehud and Mr. Cunio had returned from a tour in South America shortly earlier than the 2023 assault, in keeping with the discussion board.
Nir Oz has become a symbol of the Israeli army, intelligence and authorities debacle that led as much as the assault and failed to guard the nation’s residents that day. It was a small kibbutz, or communal village, of roughly 400 individuals earlier than the assault, throughout which greater than 1 / 4 of its inhabitants had been killed or kidnapped.
Talking at a protest on behalf of the feminine hostages in New York in December, Lian Weiss, a relative of Ms. Yehud, pleaded for his or her launch. “Please shut your eyes for a second and picture: Think about it’s you. You’re ripped from your property,” she stated, including, “We can’t let this turn out to be their without end. Each second we delay is one other second of agony for these ladies. We should act. We’ve the ability to alter their destiny.”
