Great excitement at Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, where evacuees from Kibbutz Nahal Oz are staying. The kibbutz members gathered in the dining room to watch the release of the abductees from their kibbutz. Alma Avraham, 84, sisters Dafna, 15, and Ella, 8, are released from Nahal Oz.
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Alma was abducted when she was alone in her home, and the two sisters were abducted while they were at home with their father Noam, his partner Dikla Arava, and her 16-year-old son Tomer. The terrorists murdered the couple and Arava's son and abducted the two sisters. Hamas captives are still Tzachi Idan, 47, and Omri Miran, 45, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, who were abducted together. Tzachi's eldest daughter, Maayan, 18, was murdered.
Ziva Leshchansky, Alma's friend, said excitedly: "Alma is my best friend. At 11 o'clock that day, I picked up the phone to her. She said she was sitting in the safe room and was saying, 'I have terrorists.' At that moment, the line was cut off. I called everyone I could and no one could help me. Everyone told me, 'Relax, maybe she was wrong.' I called her many times and she didn't answer. It was clear to me that something had happened. I was in the safe room and couldn't get out. My distress that maybe I could have helped her and didn't. Alma is an elderly woman with medical problems and I kept asking how she could survive."
Ziva Leszczynski Alma Avraham's best friend who is on the list of those released, photo: Gideon Markowitz
She continues: "We've been friends for 50 years. She is a creative woman, loves people, cares very much for her children. She was alone at the time. I'm very excited. I hope that the rest of our prisoners, Tzachi and Omri, will also be released. After 3 days here at Mishmar HaEmek we understood the magnitude of the disaster and also the heroic deeds that were. I can't even imagine what she went through there for 51 days. I don't know how she got through it. But I kept telling her kids that she was a strong woman and she would get through it. And it's coming true. Her family cared so much for her. So many days without knowing what's going on, it's very difficult. It's terrible what happened to us."
Tom Oren-Dannenberg, a member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, with mixed feelings: "The difficult day began at 6:17 in the morning with the color red, and continued for hours with heavy gunfire and terrorists walking around the kibbutz and entering homes. We spent 9 hours in the safe room with my wife Yael and daughter Ella, <>. Today the feeling is mixed. On the one hand, there is hope and we try to be happy, and on the other hand, there is still worry and a lot of pain for the two abductees who are still held captive by Hamas, and in general for everything we went through. We've been through very difficult things and it doesn't go away with the push of a button."
"We've been through very difficult things and it doesn't go by the push of a button." Tom Oren Dannenberg, Photo: Gideon Markowitz
"The abductees who were released were 51 days old and the rest of the abductees are still there, and I can't imagine what they're going through. We had 13 friends and one foreign worker murdered. Good friends. These are days of ups and downs. We recently finished the 30th memorial service for the good friends we lost. Little Ella, an 8/<>-year-old girl who was kidnapped, Daphne is a little older. Children who went through an inferno. So are their companies. There is no way to understand what they are going through. It's incomprehensible. I hope they are doing well. The terrorists snatched everything from children to elderly women."
Amir Tibon, a kibbutz member, talks about the complex situation: "There is a combination of great happiness here because Alma, Dafna and Ella came out of enemy captivity after 51 days, but Tzachi and Omri are still in enemy hands. So there are mixed feelings here. Great happiness for those who are released and great sadness for the abductees who are still there. We are with their families. For the Nahal Oz community, this is a day that began at 6:<> a.m. and it still continues. It will continue until Omri and Tzachi return to us."
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