"I still want to feel like we got a gift. As if this difficult hour is an opportunity for us to make amends. To build something new, to a new Israeli story," says Roy Zakari, the half-brother of Ohad Monder, the boy whom an entire country fell in love with and prayed for his release from Hamas captivity.
IDF Spokesperson
Roi Zakari, 45, from Kibbutz Hefzibah, planned to go to his father, Avi, on Saturday afternoon, October 7, to eat steaks with his family. A phone call from his father and several WhatsApp messages updated him on what had happened while he was still sleeping: "I'm not interested in the news, I don't hear the news. We received messages in the group in which my father wrote that we saw a white pickup truck driving around shooting people, and that the family should be careful. I don't know, I thought maybe it was joking, I didn't understand but then I realized it was serious. But it wasn't until I connected with my father that I really understood what was going on, that he asked me on the way to him, 'Say, don't you hear the news?' And I told him I really hadn't heard."
Ohad and Keren Munder transferred from Hamas to Red Cross personnel, photo: Arab networks
ZACHARY SUSPENDED HIS WORK IN HIS PRIVATE GUITAR EFFECTS BUSINESS AND DEVOTED HIMSELF ENTIRELY TO FIGHTING FOR HIS BROTHER'S RETURN. Now that he has returned, Roy says: "When I think of a fan, this boy who has not encountered any evil in the world until now, experiences the ultimate evil, in front of his eyes and not in the movie. It haunts me. I'm part of the family, but now it's theirs in their home, and it's clear to all of us that it's not going to be easy, but I remind myself that despite the great sadness, on a personal level, our end is a happy ending, even if it's not really the end."
The full interview with Roy Zakari will be published this weekend in Israel Hayom's Shabbat supplement
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