Who Is Arbel Yehud, the Israeli Hostage at the Center of a Cease-Fire Dispute?
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Under the cease-fire deal, Ms. Yehud should have been among the first two groups of hostages released on Jan. 19 and Jan. 25, but she was not freed.
Arbel Yehud is the female Israeli hostage at the center of the crisis testing the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas. She was seized during the Hamas-led assault on Oct. 7, 2023, from her home in Nir Oz, a village in southern Israel near the border of the Palestinian enclave.
Ms. Yehud, who was 28 at the time, was kidnapped along with her partner, Ariel Cunio, who also remains in Gaza.
Ms. Yehud is the last female civilian hostage that Israel believes is most likely alive. Another civilian woman, Shiri Bibas, remains in Gaza after she was abducted from Nir Oz with her two young sons, Ariel, who was 4 at the time, and Kfir, who was 9 months. The Israeli military has expressed grave concern for the lives of Ms. Bibas and her children, though their deaths have not been confirmed.
Ms. Yehud’s brother, Dolev Yehud, was missing for months and was also assumed to have been kidnapped. It later became clear that he never made it into Gaza: In June 2024, the Israeli authorities declared him dead after his remains were identified in Nir Oz through new testing.
Under the terms of the cease-fire deal, Ms. Yehud should have been among the first two groups of hostages released on Jan. 19 and Jan. 25, according to the Israeli authorities. Israel had demanded that its female civilians be released before the captive female soldiers, four of whom were released on Saturday.
It appears Ms. Yehud may be in the custody of another group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. An official with that group told The New York Times on Sunday that she would be released before next Saturday.