Ariel and his brother David, who were some of the longest-held living Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, have begun a Fuente Latina media tour this month.

Ariel Cunio planned his escape every day while in Hamas captivity, the former hostage said in his first official statement to the media on Thursday.

“In captivity, every day I planned an escape, but I knew that if I got out, I would be lynched in the street,” he said.

“And even if I survived and got home somehow, I feared discovering later that my brother or my girlfriend had been killed because I escaped.”

Ariel and his brother David, who were some of the longest-held living Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, have begun a Fuente Latina media tour this month that began with the pair meeting Argentinian President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires.

The Cunio family was the largest single family taken hostage, with eight members of the Argentine-Israeli family being kidnapped by the terrorist organization.

Ariel detailed how, while watching his brother Eitan’s home burn from the window of his safe room as Hamas attacked, he sent a message to his family’s WhatsApp group saying, “here begins the nightmare.”

When he and his partner, Arbel Yehoud, were taken, they fell off the terrorist’s motorcycle several times, Arbel said, and their captors had to prevent the two from being lynched by a mob celebrating the attack inside Gaza.

Ariel saw terrorists hide weapons in UNRWA bags, humanitarian sites

While in captivity, Ariel shared that he was held above ground, in civilian buildings. He saw weapons stored in UNRWA bags and humanitarian areas where Hamas knew the IDF would not strike.

“My captors would try to convince me to convert to Islam, saying it was a pity that I would die and go to hell as a Jew, instead of going to paradise, as a Muslim”, Ariel recalled.

David was held within Hamas’s tunnels and spent time with Yarden Bibas. During his captivity, he encountered Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Both David and Ariel were held separately for the entirety of their captivity, and never received information about any of their family members.