A special ceremony marking two years since the October 7 Hamas massacre was held Tuesday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., organized by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. The event, taking place during the Sukkot holiday and called the “Sukkah of Hope,” brought together freed hostages, families of those still held in Gaza, members of Congress and senior U.S. officials.
U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter of gratitude to the families’ forum for nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, thanking them for their “courage, compassion, and strength” and pledging continued support for efforts to bring all hostages home.
Ex-hostage Arbel Yehoud at an October 7 memorial event in Washington, D.C.
(Video: Reuters)
Among the speakers was Arbel Yehoud, a former hostage who was abducted to Gaza on October 7 alongside her partner Ariel Cunio and freed after 482 days in captivity. Cunio remains in Gaza. Speaking through tears, she described the agony of those still held by Hamas.
“Captivity is not just suffering—it is the slow destruction of time itself,” Yehoud said. “Every day feels like a lifetime. Every hour drips with fear, with silence, with not knowing if you will live to see another dawn. Try to imagine one day like that—two full years of darkness, of hunger, of not hearing your name spoken with love. It is not humanly possible to survive that, and yet Ariel and the others are still surviving, still waiting, still hoping. That hope is the only light they have left.”
Yehoud recalled the day she was released, saying terrorists forced her to walk through a mob. “People surrounded us, shouting my name, filming, celebrating,” she said. “Thankfully, I survived. But even now, I’m not really free. I breathe, but I don’t live. I live with unbearable guilt that I came back and he didn’t—and they didn’t, not yet.”
Since her release, Yehoud has dedicated herself to advocacy. “I’ve met with leaders, speaking to anyone who will listen, trying to explain what it meant to be a woman hostage in Gaza—to be alone, without light, without protection, waiting for a date that may never come,” she said.
Her voice breaking, Yehoud made a direct appeal to the international community: “Don’t let those who survived this horror die in the dark. Every day that passes is an eternity of suffering. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do for us. Please don’t stop.”
She ended by thanking President Trump personally. “I will forever be grateful to President Trump for saving my life and getting me home to my family,” Yehoud said. “Only because of your courage and determination, Mr. President, I am standing here today. And I dare to ask: please bring my Ariel, his brother David and all of the remaining hostages. They must come home now.”
In his letter, President Trump expressed his gratitude to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum for nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, while reaffirming his administration’s commitment to bringing home the remaining captives and defeating Hamas.
“Melania and I send along our sincerest thanks to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum for your letter of nomination to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee,” Trump wrote.
He referred to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, as “abhorrent events” that “saw families ripped apart, children torn from their parents’ arms, and innocent people shot, killed, and raped.”
“I have been resolved to returning all the hostages home, and ensuring the total destruction of Hamas so these horrific acts may never be repeated,” the president wrote. “These unspeakable scenes have been seared into our memories, and we will never forget.”
Trump added that his administration had been moved by the families’ persistence “through the unimaginable pain and suffering of spending two years not knowing where your loved ones are.”
“Please know that we remain steadfastly committed to seeing an end both to this conflict and to the waves of anti-Semitism, both at home and abroad,” he wrote. “As President, I remain steadfastly committed to, and will work tirelessly towards, restoring a foreign policy of peace through strength ending the years of endless wars, not just in the Middle East, but around the world.”
He concluded with a blessing and an appeal for peace. “May God bless you and your loved ones, and may He continue to bless the United States of America and the State of Israel, as we pray that this conflict will be at an end in the coming days—or else.”