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After Hamas finally released 110 hostages, Georgia Aspinall spoke to the family of Abigail Mor Idan, four, who was kidnapped from Israel on 7 October and spent over 50 days in captivity
ON 24 NOVEMBER, Abigail Mor Idan turned four while being held captive by Hamas. She had been held hostage since the group’s deadly terror attack on Israel on 7 October, when they killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 240. There’s also mounting evidence they committed widespread rape and mutilation. The devastation that’s followed as Israel took retaliatory action has resulted in an ‘unparalleled and unprecedented’ level of civilian death, according to the UN, with more than 15,000 thought to have been killed in Gaza.
Following international pressure, Israel agreed to a temporary ceasefire in return for Hamas releasing hostages. As Grazia went to press, the pause had come to an end, with Israel resuming attacks on Gaza, while 137 hostages remain in Hamas captivity. Thankfully, Abigail was not one of them: she was released on 26 November.
Last month, Grazia interviewed Abigail’s great aunt Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, who told how Abigail’s parents were killed when Hamas targeted her neighbourhood, Kfar Aza. Her older sister and brother survived by hiding in a wardrobe. ‘I didn’t believe Guli [Abigail’s nickname] was really here until I saw the helicopter landing,’ says Ella Mor Idan, Abigail’s aunt, of their emotional reunion at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Israel. ‘She ran straight into her grandmother’s arms, she was so happy.
‘We were counting the hours and days she was in Hamas’s cruel hands. Every time you eat something, you don’t know if she’s being fed. If there’s rain, you don’t know if she has shelter. I wondered, “Is she cold?”, We didn’t know anything.’
It’s difficult to
