On October 7th, Abigail witnesses her parents being murdered by Hamas terrorists before she is kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. Now she is back in Israel – in a “new reality,” as Prime Minister Netanyahu says.
Four-year-old Abigail Edan was in the hands of the Islamist militant Hamas for 50 days before she was released on Sunday as part of the exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas. The fate of the Israeli-American girl moves many people not only in Israel. Before she was abducted, the little girl had to watch her parents being killed by terrorists.
As US media reports, the then three-year-old was at home in a kibbutz on the border with the Gaza Strip with her two siblings, aged ten and six, on October 7th when the terrorists invaded and shot the mother in front of the three children. When her father placed himself protectively over his daughter, he was also shot. Her siblings survived because they hid in a closet, where they waited for 14 hours before being rescued, it was said.
The little sister, who was initially thought to be dead, crawled out from under her father’s body and ran to a neighbor’s house, the Washington Post quoted a relative of the girl as saying. The terrorists grabbed the girl there along with the neighboring family and kidnapped them and many other civilians to the Gaza Strip. Last Friday, Abigail turned four years old in captivity.
“Experienced terrible trauma”
“What she had to endure is unimaginable,” said US President Joe Biden after the girl became the first US citizen to be released among the hostages on Sunday. Biden continued that she experienced terrible trauma.
“What a joy it is to see her with us, but on the other hand it is also sad that she is returning to a reality where she has no parents,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “She has no parents – but she has a whole nation that embraces her and we will take care of her every need.”
The great-aunt and cousin said in a statement on Sunday that they had “no words to express our relief and gratitude,” according to the newspaper. The little girl will live with her siblings with her aunt, uncle and grandparents in Israel, a relative was quoted as saying.