Orphans in Captivity

There are 138 known living hostages that were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from Gaza on Oct 7 (Shabbat-Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah). The excruciating suffering that they and their families are undergoing cannot be measured.  

The following information and pictures of children under 18 who were/are in Gaza come from Children Kidnapped to Gaza. If the name of the child’s mother is known, it is given in parentheses.

Ladies, to take on the mitzvah of tzniut (modesty) for the merit of these children, see JustOneInch.com.

Captive Children – and a Nation Behind Them

Back from the dead, literally – I am joined by Am Yisrael in a collective sigh of relief that the suffering of Thomas Hand is finally over. He said that his daughter, Emily, would come home broken and would need to be fixed. The same is clearly true for him as well. Mixed joy and continued prayers.

 

Hila Rotem Shoshani and a few other children were released without their mothers. They were supposed to be released with their children since they are now the sole living parent.

I cannot imagine what Hila is going through right now – triple hell. The hell of starting the lifelong process of healing the trauma of being a captive. She’s also been thrown into the hell of the other families, not knowing when or if her mother will come home alive. And the third hell of mourning her father who is still missing and presumed dead. And she’s only 13… She was met at the hospital by her aunt and uncle. 

 

Avigail’s Story 

Perhaps the most heartbreaking hostage story is the story of little Avigail Idan and her entire family. The following information comes from an interview with Avigail’s uncle in a podcast on Bring Them Home Now on X (formerly Twitter).

Roi Idan was a photographer for Ynet and Yediot Acharonot news agencies. He filmed the terrorist para-gliders as they infiltrated his kibbutz. His wife Smadar and their three children were at home when terrorists broke in. Smadar was murdered. Roy and Avigail were outside the house. He was murdered by the terrorists and Avigail was miraculously able to run to her neighbor’s house (Brodetz family). A while later, Avigail and the Brodetz family were taken into captivity. 

The Idan children, Michael (9) and Amelia (6), were in the Safe Room with their dead mother for about 14 hours. Michael had the presence of mind to call the police to ask them what they should do. By that time, the emergency lines were overloaded, and Michael was transferred to MDA (Magen David Adom – paramedics). MDA told them to hide in a cupboard in the Safe Room.  

During those 14 long hours, Michael and Amelia would tell each other that soon they would be rescued and not to worry. Rescuers came, but the children weren’t sure to trust them – perhaps it was a ruse from Hamas. An uncle spoke to the children by cellphone and convinced them to go out to the rescuers. 

Imagine – two children sausaged in a small linen cupboard with nothing to drink or eat, with just enough air to breath, standing/squatting for 14 hours straight, and afraid for their lives. They could not move or speak lest the terrorists find their hiding place. It was literally a story right out of a Holocaust horror film… 

At that point, Michael and Amelia knew that their parents had been killed, and they thought that Avigail had been killed as well. They did not yet know that miraculously she had not been wounded, that she had left her dead father’s arms and ran to the neighbor’s house. Nor did they yet know that she was taken into captivity with the neighbor’s mother and her three kids. I marvel at the heroism of Avigail’s father, who surely played a role in saving her, even in his final moments. 

Imagine – a three-year-old little girl in captivity. It is only a tiny comfort to know that at least she is hopefully being held with her neighbor whom she knows well. How is she managing to eat? Who is helping her manage the terror of what she is living through, and the trauma of witnessing her father’s death? 

Dafna and Ella Elikim’s Story

Dafna is 15 years old and a 10th grade student. She was kidnapped from Nachal Oz with Ella, her 8 year old sister. Their father was murdered on Oct 7. 

These two beautiful sisters have only themselves in captivity. Their mother, Maayan Zin, wrote in #Bringthemhomenow:

There’s this bit with a lollipop that leaves color on your tongue, and we take a picture of their colorful tongues. If there’s a woman, a mother, next to my daughters, I would want to know that she is hugging them.

I am addressing you, mother-to-mother. Help me bring back my daughters, Dafna and Ella.

Emily Hand’s Story

Emily is a beautiful eight year old (she had her ninth birthday in captivity) with Irish-Israeli citizenship. Her mother passed away when she was two from cancer, r”l, and her father raised her. Emily was in Kibbutz Be’eri for a sleepover with a friend that fateful morning and is now in Gaza.

Emily’s situation might actually be the worst situation of all. Avigail Idan, 3 years old, is too small to understand much of anything, although she certainly understands being in a scary and foreign place. Daphna and Ella Elikim at least have each other. But Emily is big enough to be scared. There is a small possibility that Emily was kidnapped with the family she stayed with, but we really don’t know. She already knows the pain of growing up without a mother – and now she’s a captive in Gaza.

Emily’s father, Thomas, was famously quoted by the New York Post: “She was either dead or in Gaza, and if you know anything about what they do to people in Gaza, that is worse than death, that is worse than death,” the grieving father said.

Thomas Hand was originally told that Emily was dead. As tragic as it is to lose a child, Thomas was enormously relieved that she was not taken to Gaza. Then he received the news he dreaded – the IDF believes that Emily is really a captive. Emily’s father said during a recent interview with CNN:

You know, she is not going to come back, none of them are going to come back the way they went in… They are going to be mentally and physically and emotionally broken.

The unknown is awful, the waiting is awful,” he said. “That is what we have got to do now, just pray and hope that she comes back in some broken state that we can fix her. We will fix her somehow.

Hand’s thoughts are now on the possibility of an emotional reunion with the daughter he had believed was dead.

In my head, I can see her running to me, and me running to her, picking her up, never letting her go,” he said.

Yigil and Ohr Yaakov’s Story

Sixteen year old Ohr Yaakov and his twelve year old brother Yagil slept alone in their mother’s house in Kibbutz Nir Oz. As soon as the siren began on Saturday October 7th, their mother Renana called them to make sure they were in the safe room. At about 2:30 PM, the boys called their mother, whispering that they heard voices in Arabic in the house and that the door was broken. Renana heard Yagil begging the terrorists, “I am too young, don’t take me away”, and that was the last she heard from them.

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Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.   
  
Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email: rachel.avrahami@breslev.co.il.