About 30 children were taken hostage by Hamas militants. Their families wait in agony
CTV
Abigail Edan is just 3 years old, yet when Hamas militants stormed her kibbutz, Kfar Azza, on Oct. 7 and killed her parents, she knew enough to run to a neighbor's for shelter.
Abigail Edan is just 3 years old, yet when Hamas militants stormed her kibbutz, Kfar Azza, on Oct. 7 and killed her parents, she knew enough to run to a neighbor's for shelter.
The Brodutch family -- mother Hagar and her three children -- took Abigail in as the rampage raged. Then all five disappeared, later confirmed by the government to be captives of Hamas, both families said, some of more than 200 people dragged to Gaza on Israel's bloodiest day.
The waking nightmare has plunged the families of the captives into a foggy limbo distinct from grieving, even as tight-knit Israel mourns the more than 1,400 people killed by militants. The families of an estimated 30 children taken hostage from Israel describe a more exquisite agony, one of being haunted by the knowledge that their captive loved ones are defenseless.
"She's a baby, just 3 years old, and she's all alone," said Abigail's aunt, Tal Edan, in a telephone interview, her voice quivering. "Maybe she was with a neighbor, but I don't know if they're still together. She has no one."
Children in both Israel and Gaza have taken an outsized share of the toll from the Hamas massacre and the intensifying Israeli bombardment of the tiny enclave, a gutting undercurrent among the tragedies.
Nearly half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are children. The Hamas-run Health Ministry reported Thursday that the total death toll has soared past 7,000 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors. More than 800 children in Gaza remain missing.
Taking civilians hostage is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
