WASHINGTON – The family of Abigail Mor Idan – the 4-year-old child who was the first American hostage freed by Hamas in a cease-fire deal with Israel – provided heartbreaking new details about her capture to help press for the release of Iran-backed terrorist group hostages.
Just weeks before her fourth birthday, Abigail crawled out from under her father’s slain body outside their southern Israel home on October 7 to find himself alone after Hamas abandoned her as an orphan, her aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali told the Committee on Outside House Affairs. on Wednesday.
A few minutes earlier, Hamas gunmen shot dead his mother in their home.
The father tried to escape with the little girl and his two other children before terrorists “shot him dead,” Naftali said.
In his final act of fatherly devotion, “he fell on top of Abigail, covering her” while her 10-year-old brother, Michael, and her 6-year-old sister, Amalia, fled, Naftali said.
Believing their sister to be dead, they locked themselves in a dark closet in their home, clinging to each other in fear and pain.
The family of Abigail Mor Idan, 4, the first American hostage freed by Hamas in a cease-fire deal with Israel, provided heartbreaking new details about her capture and time in custody Wednesday. Reuters
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“Their grandmother … was in Bulgaria traveling with the kibbutz. He called his grandchildren — who were 6 and 10 years old in the closet — and he said, ‘Why is it dark?’” Naftali recalled. “He knew it was a day, and it was a beautiful day. And they said, ‘Because there are Hamas terrorists here and they just killed our parents and Abigail.'”
“He had them come out of the closet to show him from thousands of miles away the body of his daughter who killed them,” he added.
But little Abigail had miraculously survived — though her family wouldn’t learn that for another three days “because there was no chance for us to understand,” Naftali said.
Just weeks before her fourth birthday, Abigail crawled out from under her father’s slain body outside their home in southern Israel on October 7 to find herself alone after Hamas abandoned her as an orphan. AP
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Covered in her father’s blood, Abigail left his slain body and went to a nearby school friend’s house to seek help, Naftali said.
There, her young friend’s mother takes her in, locking Abigail in a safe room where she and her own children are sheltered after Hamas shoots their father as well.
But Hamas is not done with its reign of terror against the children.
The militants kidnapped Abigail and a neighboring family soon after, holding them hostage in Gaza until they were released on Sunday.
Her father tried to flee with the little girl and her two other children before terrorists “shot him,” her aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. AP
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“What we found out a few days later was that the witness had seen a mother and children taken from the kibbutz by Hamas terrorists,” Naftali said.
“That’s 50 days we didn’t know anything about Abigail’s whereabouts. We know nothing about this mother, Hagar, and her three children. We didn’t know they were together.”
The family won’t answer their questions until Sunday, when Abigail and her neighbor are among 17 hostages released in a ceasefire deal that also forced Israel to release 180 Palestinian prisoners.
Calling Abigail “my strength and hope,” Naftali learned that the girl had been kept in darkness without access to light or much food while she was being held captive – but her friend’s mother mercifully kept the little girl alive.
Covered in her father’s blood, Abigail left her slain body and went to a nearby school friend’s house to seek help, but Hamas terrorists kidnapped Abigail, holding her hostage in Gaza until her release on Sunday. X/Israel PM
The Israel-Hamas War: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches its biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early morning ambush on Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
The terrorists killed over 1,200 Israelis, injured over 4,200, and took at least 200 hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly announced, “We are at war,” and promised Hamas would pay “an unprecedented price.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health – which is controlled by Hamas – reports at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
“He’s pale, he’s hungry. I will not explain further, but he has been somewhere in the dark for 50 days,” said Naftali.
“The only blessing is that this woman, Hagar, has taken care of Abigail as if she were one of her own.”
In the three days since, Abigail has made an excellent recovery, Naftali said.
Abigail and her neighbor were among 17 hostages released in a ceasefire agreement that also forced Israel to release 180 Palestinian prisoners. AP
He was treated in hospital, where his siblings and cousins visited him and cheered him up.
“He blossomed. The light is back,” he said.
“And every day we hope that Abigail continues this process.”
Despite the difficult road to healing ahead, Naftali said his family will not back down from pressuring the international community to demand the release of the roughly 180 hostages still in Hamas’s grip.
“Some people might say, ‘Liz, why are you still here [advocating]? You win the lotto — your brother comes home with his family,’” he said.
“But what I want to say here is [other] people who … are waiting for their loved ones to return, we are now a family. We are here for each other, and I will continue [fighting for them].”
Calling lawmakers to action, Naftali closed with an urgent message: “Keep going [the hostages] out.”
“We need more to come out and we need them to come out soon, because when I see those faces, when you see those faces after 52 or 53 days [in captivity]you can’t stay there much longer.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
