An Israeli mother is offering herself as a hostage to Hamas to potentially reunite with her daughter, a month after they were captured by the terrorist group.
“I am calling on the President of the United States Joe Biden and the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, if you cannot bring back my girl now, I am asking you, I am begging you, bring me to them now,” Maayan Zin pleaded in emotional video appeal uploaded on X.
“Put me in Gaza. I will be hostage 243. If I can hold them and tell them everything will be fine. Hug them and tell them that mom is here – no matter who mom is here.”
Zin’s daughters — Dafna Elyakim, 15, and 8-year-old Ela Elyakim — were abducted by Hamas from their father’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, according to the Times of Israel.
Today marks 30 sad days since my daughters, Dafna (15) and Ela (8), were kidnapped by Hamas after witnessing their father’s horrific murder before their eyes. I find it impossible to sleep, think clearly, even breathe. Please, I am begging for your help. pic.twitter.com/AncsaBjd6S
— Maayan Zin (@ZinMaayan1007) November 5, 2023
The attack on the family home was broadcast on Facebook Live, which showed Zin’s ex-husband, Noam Elyakim, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the leg as Dafna cried next to him, the outlet said.
The bodies of Noam, his girlfriend Dikla Arava, and Arava’s son, Tomer, were later found near the Gaza border.
Zin then saw a video of her two daughters sitting on a mattress in pajamas she didn’t recognize, the Times of Israel reported.
Maayan Zin appealed to Israeli and American officials to do whatever it took to secure her daughter’s release.X / Maayan Zin
“My daughters, Dafna and Ela, 15 and 8 years old, were detained by Hamas in Gaza. Two girls alone after they had to watch their father brutally killed,” Zin lamented in his X video, which received over 1 million views in just a few hours on Sunday.
“Thirty days have passed since they were kidnapped, since they were taken from me,” he added, noting that it had been difficult to “hold my breath” since Oct. 7.
“I received many messages praising my video, and it had thousands of views. But, I’m not looking for insight; I just want my daughter home NOW,” she wrote in a follow-up post.
Zin’s ex-husband was killed when the two girls were kidnapped.AFP via Getty Images
In an interview with CNN shortly after the early October attacks that killed 1,400 people and left about 242 Israelis in Hamas captivity, Zin explained that he confirmed his daughter was taken when his sister showed him a video of Dafna “on a mattress in Gaza.”
“I thought at first it was some kind of photoshop that the Arabs did. I didn’t think such a thing could happen,” he said.
“They are everything I’ve wanted all my life. This is my existence to be a mother. That’s all I want. I don’t want to be rich, I don’t want to get married, I don’t want anything. I want to be a mother.”
Dafna, 15, disappeared with her sister. X / Maayan Zin
Zin and hundreds of other families in Israel and beyond are living a nightmare a month after Hamas terrorists breached the Gaza border fence and unleashed merciless violence in southern Israel.
Kibbutz Nir Oz, where Dafna and Ela visit their father, was one of the hardest hit communities and lost a quarter of its population in just a few hours, according to The Atlantic.
The local victims included Siman Tov’s family — grandmother Carol, his son Johnny, his wife, Tamar, their 6-year-old twins Shahar and Arbel, and 4-year-old son Omer, according to the New York Times.
Maayan Zin said she saw a video of her daughter wearing a nightgown that did not belong to them.X / Maayan Zin
The family was buried together in a pit, which the coffin could barely fit into, the outlet said.
As of Tuesday, four hostages have been returned: American mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were released on October 20, and elderly neighbors Nurit Yitzhak and Yochved Lifshitz, who were released three days later.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
