The family of the Basque kidnapped by Hamas: "We have 50% hope that it will end well"

Danny Garcovich moved from Chile to Israel in 1984 with his wife and daughter Dafna.. “Everyone lives in the place where they feel most rooted,” he says.. His place in the world is Kibbutz Kisufim, just two kilometers from Gaza. His house is 100 meters from that of his daughter Dafna and his son-in-law, the Spanish citizen Iván Illarramendi. Both disappeared on the day of the brutal Hamas attack and the Israeli authorities have included them among the nearly 200 kidnapped by the Islamists.. Garcovich attends to El Confidencial in a telephone conversation. He says he has good information because he is chief of the fire department that covers the entire perimeter of the Gaza Strip in Israeli territory.. He advocates for a future without terrorism and reacts like this when asked about a possible exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners: “If to save one life I am sure that I am going to lose 1,000 lives later, painful decisions must be made.”.

ASK. Can you describe your last communication with your daughter and son-in-law?

ANSWER. At 12:30 on Saturday was the last contact. My daughter wrote because she couldn't speak so as not to make noise and not be heard. She asked for “help, help, help” and all communications were cut off because the mobile transmission antennas blew up and the power supply was cut off. We could no longer have contact with them.

Q. Did she report that there were people in her house?

A. She reported that there were people inside the house who spoke Arabic and a little later she reported that they were destroying everything in the house and then she asked for help, she asked that we send someone to help them.

Q. Do they have a safe room in their house?

A. Yes, we all have a safe room.

P. Do you also live in that same kibbutz?

R. In the same kibbutz of Kisufim, yes. 100 meters from where Dafna and Iván live.

P. I was impressed by how close it is to Gaza.

R. It's two kilometers away, yeah.

P. Had they suffered terrorist incursions of this type before?

R. No. Missiles always fell. And, well, the armored room always helps, but in this case, a militia incursion under the cover of the rain of missiles, which lasted for many hours and in quantities that we have never seen, did not. They used the missiles as a curtain to be able to approach and enter and carry out massacres inside the houses, kill entire families inside, shoot them to death or, in the case of an elderly person, burn the house with the elderly person inside.. In the case of another person, cut their throat. They are acts that do not fit within the human mind. If it is a fight between soldiers, it might be a little understandable, but attacking civilians who have nothing to do is terrible and very horrifying..

P. Have you ever considered moving to live somewhere else?

R. Each person lives in the place where they feel most rooted to the earth, where they feel that this is their place.. Haifa [north of Israel and far from Gaza] may be a much nicer place, but they are not exempt from some bombing there as well. We are in our place, we will rebuild our place and we will live again in the same place. I can assure you that, I promise you.

Q. How many years had Ivan been living in the kibbutz?

A. Nine years, more or less. They got married in Spain and arrived at the kibbutz. They bought their house, they had their jobs. Everything was already settled in life. They were even thinking about having children.. They already had everything they should have gotten.

P. You are of Chilean origin, right?

R. Yes, we are of Chilean origin. Dafna came with me and my wife from Chile in 1984.

P. What does Dafna do?

R. She is the head of a quality control department at one of the factories that was here in the area and Iván is the dining room manager at another kibbutz to the north.. It's north of us, about eight kilometers away.. What I am telling you about what happened in the kibbutz where I live is a grain of sand compared to what happened in that other kibbutz: death, massacred people, families, children, old people.. Because? It is an act that would be applicable to Daesh. I don't think a sane person could do this..

P. Have you been able to speak with Iván's relatives in the Basque Country?

R. Yes, we are in contact with them, with Iván's brother. He is very sad, he doesn't want to talk much, he doesn't want to talk to you journalists, he is locked up, thinking, I ask you to leave him alone, to respect him, it is very important.

P. What information have you received from the Government of Israel?

R. As head of the fire brigade in charge of the Gaza Strip from the north to the Egyptian border, in Israeli territory, I have quite a bit of information. Information is given to people in an orderly and safe manner so as not to cause further harm and cause public alarm.. You have to try to pass the information very carefully, because there are older mothers and relatives who could be harmed.. It is not necessary for me to inform myself on that side because I am aware of several things.

P. And without endangering your safety, do you know where Dafna and Iván are?

R. No. As long as I don't see proof that they are kidnapped or Hamas gives any information or the Red Cross offers some information, for me they are missing.. As a father, in my heart, I have pain, but as a rescuer used to seeing tragic cases, we have 50% hope that the news can be positive.

P. The other day, a mother in a similar situation to hers, with a missing daughter, said she didn't know if she would prefer her to be dead or kidnapped by Hamas.. What do you think?

R. We all prefer to know the truth. As long as she is kidnapped, we have 50% hope that everything will turn out well in the end. The governments, both yours and Chile, the International Red Cross and everyone, are trying to act to obtain information. The moment we are sure and we receive information about what state they are in, then I will be able to say that we have a hope that will not be 50%, but 75%. But we are dealing with people who cannot be described as human. Everything is possible until we know reality.

Q. If you could talk to Benjamin Netanyahu, what would you ask him?

A. Let Netanyahu decide what he sees fit. I do not intervene in their work, they do not intervene in mine. The only thing I would like is for them to make intelligent decisions, because if they are intelligent we are going to achieve a world free of terrorists in this area.. They are a pain not only for us, but for their own people. They are using their people as hostages. They hide in hospitals, we have seen a bombing in a hospital and it is not because Israel has committed a war crime but because they are firing missiles from there and there are people who are hiding. The ringleaders are hiding, using their own people as human shields.. It is important for us to end this and root out this problem to also give the Palestinian people the opportunity to live in peace..

R. On occasions, exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners have been negotiated…

R. [Interrupts] One in 1,000! One for 1,000, one soldier for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. And I tell you what the citizens of Israel think: there is nothing more important than a human life, but to save a life, if I am sure that I am going to lose 1,000 human lives, painful decisions must be made.. That's what I can tell you. What will I think in 24 hours? Don't know.

Q. What, for you, is the solution to this secular conflict?

A. We are dealing with an organization that is like Daesh. We are not going to stop.

Q. The international community insists these days on the two-state solution. Do you agree?

A. Of course it is possible to build that and live in peace and harmony, as long as there is no terrorist organization that does things even against its own people to take care of their interests.. Not only does it come from here, it also has to do with the financing that comes from other countries that are interested in maintaining this. The attack has been very well planned.

Q. Do you fear that an Israeli intervention in Gaza could lead to reprisals against the hostages?

A. They have already said it. If Egypt itself does not want to open the border so that terrorists do not enter… I am sure that they will be able to do anything.