“Hamas told us they would not shoot and then they murdered my daughter”

Warning: This article contains descriptions of acts of violence.

When Tsachi Idan was taken to Gaza, his hands were still covered in his daughter’s blood.

He wasn’t allowed to wash them after petting them Maayan18 years old, murdered in front of her family by a Hamas fighter.

WATCH: Israel shows footage recorded by Hamas militants’ body cameras during October 7 attack

She also failed to wipe them off before using her body to cover her two youngest children as the sound of explosions buzzed in the air outside her home.

Throughout the ordeal, Hamas used a telephone to broadcast the family’s pain and terror to the world via Facebook Live.

Gali IdanTsachi’s wife, is now away from her beloved Nahal Oz, one of the many communities in southern Israel attacked by Hamas on October 7.

She and her surviving children are cared for on another kibbutz, surrounded by care and comfort. But it’s not her home.

Their home is where the family has lived since Maayan was 4 years old. It is the house where they grew up and created memories together and where their younger brothers were born.

Maayan, the eldest daughter, was mature and shy. “She was perfect,” said a neighbor.

She had just gotten her driver’s license and had her first boyfriend. She loved reading and asked for books on her birthday, four days before she was killed.

As Gali says, he will now be 18 forever.

Maayan Idan was a keen volleyball player and had turned 18 just days before her family was attacked by Hamas. (FAMILY PHOTO).

The moment of the attack

Sitting in the shade of citrus trees, Gali says she doesn’t want to share the pain of that day, which is too raw. But she does it for her husband, Tsachi.

“I want him back. Whole and alive. I want him back now.”

On October 7, the family woke up to the sound of alarms warning of rocket launches coming from Gaza. They knew what they had to do. But that morning something was different.

“It was unusual and very intense”Gali tells me. “It was a bombing. One bombing after another. We couldn’t even come out to breathe. We locked ourselves in the mamad, our protected room inside the house.”

“Tsachi and I looked at each other and said something wasn’t right here. That something was very wrong,” he continues.

“We received messages on the kibbutz’s internal system saying that we were being attacked and that we should stay inside the mamad. At some point they told us to be calm, that there was probably an infiltration of terrorists inside the kibbutz.”

“You have to understand that this is something that has never been possible, ever. It was always the nightmare of nightmares, but There was always a solution from the State or the security forces for that situation.. And suddenly, it was real. “The nightmare was real.”

Gali says her daughter Maayan was killed while trying to stop Hamas from entering the house’s safe room.

Gali describes how, at that moment, something exploded outside the house, breaking the window panes. Then, footsteps and voices were heard inside the house. A man shouted in accented English: “We don’t shoot.”

But they did it.

“Tsachi held on to the door and didn’t let them open it,” says Gali. “There is no lock and the children were screaming and there was chaos inside the room. It was dark, but then Maayan reacted.”

“He saw that they managed to open the door a little. So he went ahead and helped Tsachi hold the door.”

Gali cries, but continues describing that moment.

“They shouted ‘we’re not going to shoot’ and then they shot. Tsachi asked ‘Who did they hit, who did they hit?’ It was Maayan. She fell next to him and then Hamas managed to open the door. There were screams and they turned on the lights.”

“Maayan was in a huge pool of blood. I checked on her and realized she had been hit in the head and was seriously injured. They shouted at us to get off the breast. We just told the kids ‘no’ look,’ and I took them out.

“Why are they here? Why do they kill?

In their night clothes, Tsachi, Gali and their two youngest children, Yael11 years and Shachar9 years old, sat on the floor as the sound of gunshots echoed around them.

One of his captors took Gali’s phone, asked for the password and began recording the family to broadcast on Facebook Live.

The video is painful to watch. For more than 26 minutes, the family is seen crouching as more air raid sirens sound and the Hamas attack continues. Children jump at the shock of the gunshots and cry in their parents’ arms. Meanwhile, Maayan’s lifeless body lies a few meters away.

The couple’s youngest children turned to Hamas militants.

“Fortunately, my children are brave in an indescribable way,” says Gali. “They spoke to the terrorists, I don’t know how they did it. They asked why are they here, why do they shoot and why do they kill. Maybe that’s what saved us.”

“And Tsachi was devastated. He saw his daughter die, he saw how they shot her in the head and died next to him. His daughter who had just turned 18. The house was full of balloons and congratulations, and… and blood “.

Finally, Tsachi was told to get up. They handcuffed his hands behind his back. The children shouted at the Hamas militants not to take their father, not to kill him. But they took him away.

“Do you want to show yourself as a monster?”

SharonGali’s second eldest daughter, who was in Tel Aviv when the attack occurred, tries to comfort her mother as she talks about her terrible experience.

The 15 year old girl managed to speak to his father on the phone during the attack.

“Sharon, we’re in trouble, I’ll call you later. I love you,” Tsachi said, and hung up. It was the last time they spoke. Gali’s last words to her husband are also engraved in her mind.

“When he left the house I told him: ‘I love you, don’t play the hero, be smart’. Take care and come back to me in one piece. And that’s it.”

“And now I want him to come back to me, whole and well,” says Gali. “Tsachi has to be here and mourn his daughter. I need to hug him.”

Israel has already identified more than 200 people held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. In Israel and around the world, families are torn apart.

Sharon, who was away when Hamas attacked, says her father told her on the phone: “We are in trouble.” (INFO).

“I don’t understand what their goal is,” says Gali.

“Do they want to show themselves as monsters? It is or they are. You are monsters. They are the worst nightmare our children can have. They are terror. There is no way to define it. It’s horrible. I don’t know how long this scar will last. But they must bring back the civilians. “They should bring everyone back.”

Father kidnapped, daughter murdered

In another kibbutz, far from home, Maayan’s coffin lies silently in front of rows of chairs.

There are not enough seats for the hundreds of people who come to remember her, carrying wreaths and bouquets of colorful flowers.

Friends and family give speeches and share memories of a young girl who loved playing volleyball and loved life.

Gali speaks to the gathered crowd, remembering her daughter. When he’s not at the microphone, he hugs his surviving children tightly.

Mourners wore T-shirts with the message: “Bring Tsachi back.”

Yael and Shachar, just 11 and 9 years old, saw so many horrors that their little faces They started crying again and again. Their sister has died and their father is not here to comfort them.

Tsachi’s absence is felt everywhere. Gali says he wants the world to know his name. She is willing to do any little thing that can help free him.

Many of the mourners wear T-shirts with photos of their father and Maayan on the front. The words “kidnapped father” and “murdered daughter” appear above their faces, family photos from a happier time.

On the back, a simple and blunt message: “Bring Tsachi back”.

In this unimaginable darkness, his family needs him.

Source: Elcomercio