Former hostage Iair Horn spoke of his time held in Hamas captivity, recounting an experience when he carried his younger brother, Eitan, who still remains captive, as the two ran from missiles in a Gaza tunnel, while speaking at a Tuesday Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting.
Horn was released without Eitan during a February hostage and ceasefire deal after almost 500 days in captivity.
He spoke at the meeting alongside former hostages Yarden Bibas and Sharon Aloni-Cunio. They both called on the attending MKs to take action to return the remaining hostages, saying that the government was not doing nearly enough to release them.
He told the MKs of an incident that had occurred when he was in captivity with his brother.
“There was a procedure to stay quiet, and we were hearing explosions coming closer and closer, until a missile landed just a few meters from us,” he began.
“We started running, you can imagine what a tunnel looks like, we ran, and the concrete was bent, and the tunnel nearly collapsed on us,” he said.
Horn explained that while they were running, Eitan struggled to keep up with him. “In addition to the bombing, there were toxic gases; you couldn’t breathe,” Horn said.
As they ran together, “Eitan sat down and told me to leave him,” Horn recounted, he could be seen tearing up while speaking.
“But he’s my younger brother, and I wasn’t going to give up on him,” he continued.
“He weighed 100 kilos or more, and I dragged him by the arm as we ran in the direction the terrorist told us to go, while trying to carry my brother,” Horn explained.
“At that moment, I was ready to sacrifice myself in order to try to save my brother,” he added.
Hostage-ceasefire deal
Horn also spoke about a hostage-ceasefire deal at the meeting, stating, “If I was able to be released in a deal, then perhaps that’s the best way to release the rest of the hostages.”
He spoke on the hardship of moving forward since his time in captivity.
“I don’t count the days anymore, but we don’t really sleep well, and that makes it difficult for me to speak and organize my thoughts. But it was important to me to come and speak from the heart,” he said. “A week ago, my mother asked me to help her because she had made new signs with Eitan’s picture. The old ones had faded from being in the sun for so long. Over 700 days have passed, dates, birthdays, life itself.”
Former hostage Sharon Aloni-Cunio, who was kidnapped by Hamas with her twin daughters, spoke at the committee meeting as well. She was released together with her daughters in a hostage ceasefire deal. Her husband, David, still remains held captive by the terror group.
Aloni-Cunio slammed the MKs at the meeting for not doing enough to bring her husband home.
“Everything you are doing is the exact opposite of bringing them home. Every day you are killing us again, and them,” she said.
“These committees keep dragging on, you raise a glass, you go on recess,” she said.
“It is a disgrace that you don’t have even a drop of mercy for us or for them. I am sorry that I have to come and interrupt your agenda just to remind you that there are 48 hostages there. I only hope this will move you, even a little,” she concluded.
Bibas joined the meeting as well, sitting next to Horn and Aloni-Cunio. He was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and separated from his wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel, then four years old, and Kfir, nine months old at the time. Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were murdered by the terror group while in captivity.