by Hugh Fitzgerald
An Israeli mom reunited with her two just-freed daughters.
So much sorrow and anguish. The sorrow for those fiendishly murdered on October 7, when Hamas killers came down like wolves on the fold, on the helpless innocent kibbutzim, and beheaded babies, burned children alive, gang-raped, tortured, and murdered young girls, the women whose breasts were sliced off, the men whose genitalia were cut off and eyes gouged out. The children murdered in front of their parents, the parents in front of their children. The killers’ laughter as they shot women in their vulvas, cut open a pregnant woman’s stomach to murder her baby before killing her, the hilarity of kicking a head, like a soccer ball, in the yard, the filming one another as they raped or mutilated or murdered. What fun! The Hamas operative who called his mother to excitedly tell her: “Mom, I killed ten Jews! I killed ten Jews with my own hands.”
Then there is the anguish of the families of the hostages. Of the original 245 believed to have been taken, how many has Hamas killed? The Israelis have recovered the bodies of eight hostages, and believe that twenty other hostages have been murdered by Hamas. Is it your child or children, your mother or your father or your sister or your brother, who is still alive, or has been killed? You may find out about your relatives next week, or you may not find out for months to come, depending on negotiations over another hostage-for-prisoner swap that may, or may not, take place. Now you have a new worry — fear that soldiers in the IDF itself might misidentify your relative held hostage as a member of Hamas. Three Israelis have already been killed from such a mistake. You have no idea what it would take — say, the killing of Yahya Sinwar — to prompt Hamas to summarily execute hostages. Will it be your relative, or someone else’s, or two dozen at once, who will receive a bullet in the back of the neck?
Two sisters, Dafna and Ella Elyakim, who were taken on October 7, were finally released in the hostage-for-prisoner swap and were met by their mother. I was particularly touched by the very tight embrace, the hug between the three of them, signifying “we must never be separated again.” More on their reunion can be found here: “This mother was reunited with her daughters after campaigning for their release on X,” Jerusalem Post, November 28, 2023:
Maayan Zin – an Israeli mother whose two daughters Dafna Elyakim, 15, and Ella Elyakim, 8, were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and brought into Gaza as hostages – had been rallying on their behalf on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), demanding their release from Hamas captivity.
Her nightmare came to an end on Sunday after Israel secured their release, among the 17 people released by Hamas on the third day of the war’s “pause” in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners.
The family’s emotional reaction was captured on video and shared by Zin on social media.
You can see Maayan, Dafna, and Ella embracing in a video here.
And you can see all three — the mother and her two just-freed daughters — even more tightly entwined, in the photograph posted here.
That’s what cut me to the quick. That’s what I wanted you to see.
Hugh Fitzgerald
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/a-tight-embrace/
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