Yuli and Emma Cunio, three-year-old identical twin girls, were abducted into Gaza in the surprise Hamas attack against Israel on October 7. During their first day of captivity, Emma was abducted separately from her parents and twin sister – it wasn’t until ten days later that the twins’ mother Sharon recognized her daughter’s cry when they were moved to be imprisoned in a hospital room.
The damages of twin separation are a small but important example of Hamas cruelty to children and the devastation brought to a whole region.
The effects of war trauma on anyone are devastating, but can be especially detrimental and long-lasting on children. Children often lack the coping skills of adults, and are unable to verbalize the traumatic experiences they have suffered and are still suffering. Research shows that war exposure is associated with mental, behavioral, and emotional problems in children, including a high prevalence of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Therefore, an especially critical task is to raise awareness of the effects of war on children in general, and with reference to specific children, whose circumstances might exacerbate their vulnerability.
The war that Hamas initiated has led to mass suffering and casualties affecting many children. As the surprise attacks provoked a predictable and inevitable Israeli retaliation, they also led to a massive loss of life in Gaza, including an estimated death toll of thousands of children, often affected because Hamas strategically placed its rockets in and launched them from civilian places like schools and hospitals, and later prevented many civilians from fleeing these areas.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli children were displaced in Gaza, and in the south and north of Israel, areas under rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. Finally, children’s indirect exposure to the horrors of war in the media further traumatizes them. In a study by one of us (AKN), Israeli children from the relatively peaceful Jerusalem area showed high degrees of anxiety, with over 30% reporting anxiety levels that, if untreated, will exceed a clinical threshold.
October 7 massacre
HAMAS TERRORISTS killed dozens of children in towns, villages, and kibbutzim, often in front of their parents. The burning and beheading of children have also been reported. Hamas abducted 39 adolescents and children, using them as bargaining chips. Most (with the exception of two young brothers, one of whom was only nine months old!) were released during a truce deal.
The 1976 kidnapping of school children in Chowchilla, California, left lasting trauma even though the children escaped the following day. For Hamas hostages held for months, the effects will surely be even more severe.
As Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari has noted, these actions were not just about achieving military goals, but were also aimed at sowing hatred and fear. Hamas used psychological torture, forcing abducted children to view footage of atrocities. One of us (AKN) met with family members of hostage children. They told him how the returned children could speak only in whispers. The same was true for the Cunio twins – apparently, their captors terrified them into not speaking.
As developmental scientists studying twins, the viciousness towards these twin children caught our attention specifically. Why does the story of these twins deserve such focused attention? Our research and that of our colleagues shows that the bond between identical twins is the closest of human social relationships. It is a celebrated connection offering unique and enduring levels of trust, acceptance, and love.
Even infant twins as young as three or four months of age acknowledge the occasional absence of the small person in the adjacent crib – hearing absent co-twins vocalizing in the next room may cause them to stop moving or feeding. But what if Emma had not been found, had not been released, or – very worst-case scenario – fallen sick or been murdered by her captors?
ONE OF us (NLS) has spent many years associated with the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, studying social relations between twins adopted separately as babies and reunited as adults. Their emotions range from anger and bitterness, to sadness and regret at the loss of this critical family tie.
Research shows that the death of one’s twin, whether through natural cause, accident, or circumstance, is the most devastating of losses (numerous losses were compared) – even more so than the loss of a parent or a non-twin sibling. The loss of a young, healthy individual is met with especially elevated grief.
Also note that twin loss in infancy or early childhood cannot be dismissed by assuming that the surviving child is unaware of this loss or does not process it at some level. Interviews with parents reveal that their surviving twin child often cries, seeks physical comfort and/or shows sleeplessness. Even twins who never knew their co-twin, due to prenatal or early loss, mourn the loss of this novel relationship. Indeed, in a recent TV interview, Yuli and Emma Cunio’s mother Sharon described how her twins have changed in their emotional behavior, including the presence of frequent tantrums replacing a previously joyful temperament.
The twins and their mother are also still separated from their father, who remains in captivity in Gaza, like other children who were forced to be separated from their fathers as part of the truce deal that prioritized releasing children and mothers. In the past, the Society for Research in Child Development has been very clear about the damages of separating young children from their parents. But too many professional organizations concerned with children’s welfare are silent about what Hamas did directly and indirectly to harm children. By this, they are normalizing acts whose sole purpose is to psychologically torture children as part of combat or conflict situations.
Recognizing and condemning the crimes of the Hamas war and the effects on thousands of children, and emphasizing the indispensable role of family ties in fostering resilience and emotional support for twin and non-twin children affected by conflict, are not only matters of moral obligation – they are critical steps toward preserving the well-being and future of innocent children in Israel and Palestine. Working to reunify parents with their children is a moral imperative for professional organizations and the civilized world.
Ariel Knafo-Noam, PhD, a professor of developmental psychology and chair of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Psychology Department, is the director of the Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins. Nancy L. Segal, PhD, is professor of developmental psychology and director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. She has authored nine books on twins, the most recent being Gay Fathers, Twin Sons and The Twin Children of the Holocaust.