4:08. Awake again. For almost two months now, it has become an almost legitimate hour. Because she got up. Because her sister. Because they, and their brother, are here next to me. And? Almost two months have passed since they were taken. Brutally tear them away from their safest place. In pajamas, in short clothes, with the innocence of children. 51 days and nights of worry. of stomach turning. of uncertainty. And now, reverence.
No music in the background, no editing, a video of a fan running to Dad is heartbreaking. It's as simple as that. He spent 49 days there in the kidnappers' tunnels. Taken 8 years old, turned 9 years old there. Maybe 900 years old.
The next day, it was Emily who wanted to. My father was already crying for her when they declared that she had been murdered. Now that he holds her in his arms, they are tears of joy.
Emily Hand meets her father after her release, Photo: Report
And Raz, who dreamed that she was going home. and her sister Aviv. And Emilia, and brothers Ofri and Yuval and Uriah, and Abigail Idan one. Odd is rescued from fire, after they murdered both her parents. She became 4 years old in captivity. An orphan.
• • •
4:08. Every night. My private children are covered with a blanket. I know, I'm awake to check. Lifting the little one's blanket off the floor, arranging the pink unicorn covering her sister's face. Counts small, deep breaths of girls sleeping peacefully.
But the stomach turns, and the heart is on a long rollercoaster track. Glad for the children who come out one by one from a white ambulance. Anxiety for the fate of those who have not yet. Concern for those who are already here. Longing for those who will never return. "The child of us all" we called Gilad Shalit, who returned after 5 years in the dark. And now we have so many children to take care of.
They are too small. Too many. Too far away, although maybe geographically they are really close. They, and their mother and father, and brothers, and grandparents. Because in the twisted world of murderers, they also take girls with curls and grandmothers who established kibbutzim.
Kfir Bibas was kidnapped at the age of 9 months. Who knows how old he will be when he returns. His 4-year-old brother Ariel will grow up maybe by a month, or two months, but maybe by 100 years. And mom Shiri, and dad Jordan, are they there with them to hug them when they cry? Do they cry too? A whole world awaits the complete picture of the Bibas family. The whole world knows that as of now, according to the plan, they will not be returned together.
Kfir Bibas, Photo: None
Ariel Bibas, Photo: None
Three days into a ceasefire and the "deals" and there are still more than 100 older children there, perhaps close, maybe far away. Because even a 30-year-old man has someone waiting at home.
• • •
All of us, mothers of the home front, are waiting. All of us, citizens with transparent uniforms of concern, are waiting. Awake at night with wrinkles of war etched between the eyebrows, with lines of smiles that come up intermittently. Waiting.
Don't say they will come, they don't come by themselves. Someone took them and he needs to bring them back, all of them. And we are waiting.
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