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It’s excruciating,” Dekel-Chen said. “We don’t know if he’s healthy, or wounded. We know nothing… Hope is hard to come by right now.” In Eilat, around 160 survivors from Nir Oz are now living in the Isrotel Yam Suf, a hotel which overlooks the beach and the rust-colored mountains of Jordan just a few miles across the narrow Gulf of Aqaba.
My daughter) asked me if this is soldiers in our house, so I said yeah, this is soldiers and they (are) keeping us safe,” he said. “I tried to create them an alternative reality.” As they face this continued threat, the displaced residents are also burying their dead, and campaigning to have their loved ones released from captivity in Gaza. But the beauty and tranquillity of this location is shattered by the tales of terror from those living inside. More than a quarter of the community of 400 people in Nir Oz were either killed or kidnapped, residents say, making it one of the worst affected kibbutzim. He is a very good friend and we (were) playing soccer in the kibbutz,” Uri said, adding that he plans to “hug him” if he escapes from captivity. Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza continue their march to Knesset in Jerusalem demanding the release of their relatives in Jerusalem on November 18, 2023. Demonstrators carried Israeli flags and photos of the hostages. Yair Palti/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Dekel-Chen is now helping to care for his two granddaughters and his pregnant daughter-in-law, who is due to have a third child within the next few weeks. The families are receiving psychological therapy and the children are attending a kids’ club, but they haven’t been in school for a month – and their uncertain future is unsettling the whole community.
Adar said his brother’s children are struggling to cope without their dad. “It’s very hard for them, especially at night,” Adar said. “They’re crying a lot there. They miss him.” I collapsed, I broke down that moment,” Yonathan said. “(Uri) said it was the first time he saw me cry.”
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The members of the Nir Oz community in Eilat came together to sing in the hotel lounge recently, with the surviving children holding posters of their loved ones. Video of the event seen by CNN showed a little girl breaking down in tears as she held a photo of her father as high as her arms could reach. Uri’s main concern during those long hours trapped in the room was for his other little brother, 10-year-old Yoav, who had been at a friend’s house on a sleepover the night before. His brother, 38-year-old Tamir, was kidnapped by Hamas, while his wife and children escaped capture. But Adar fears that even if Tamir has survived to this point, he’ll now never get out.
The country should protect the civilians and if they can’t do it, (the) deal is broken between the citizens and the state,” Adar said. “How can you live here if you’re not safe?”The worsening humanitarian disaster has caused a global outcry and calls for a pause in fighting, but Israel has insisted that there will be “no ceasefire” without the release of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas. When they finally emerged from his home in the late afternoon, Adar realized that his brother’s house – just 20 meters away – had been set ablaze.
I’m afraid that the men will stay left behind,” he said, partly because the negotiations for hostage release are currently focused on women and children. The family with whom Yoav was staying also survived in their safe room, and the Barrs were reunited later that day, after the Israeli military arrived. Children are resilient, if surrounded by love,” Dekel-Chen said. “(But) most of them are terrified to be more than a meter or two from their parents,” he added, and they are “incredibly fearful of any sound that isn’t normal, or any person that they don’t know.” As they work out their next steps, the families hope that staying together as a community in Eilat will help the grieving process.
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