Abigail and Emily, the girls who return to Israel after "a terrible trauma"

Abigail Edan has returned home two days after her birthday kidnapped by the jihadist group Hamas. She has spent 51 days of her recently completed four years in captivity in the Gaza Strip without knowing why unknown assailants shot her parents, why she cannot see daylight and why hooded men took her from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in the south of Israel, to a distant place even if it is just a few kilometers from his home. Not knowing why someone named Joe Biden called her family to ask about her after she was released.

Abigail also does not know that she has become a symbol in Israel or that her return was a personal mission from the American president who, after remembering that the American-Israeli girl suffered “a terrible trauma,” emotionally confirmed: “She is free.”. Thank God he's home.”

Along with eight other Israeli children and four women, Abigail was part of the list of the third round of the truce agreement. In addition, Hamas released an Israeli-Russian “as a gesture of recognition to President Vladimir Putin for his support for the Palestinian cause,” and three Thais.

Of the dozens of children kidnapped in the October 7 attack that sparked the massive Israeli military operation, only Abigail was kidnapped without her parents.. On “Black Saturday”, his kibbutz was awakened by Hamas shells. His father Roy, a photographer for the news website YNET, did not hesitate, left the house and took incredible photos of people arriving by paraglider.. He quickly returned home. The terrorists also hurried. His wife Smadar had already been murdered.. Shortly after, he was shot in front of Abigail.. The girl, with her father's blood on her clothes, ran to the neighbors' house.

“Suddenly, I heard soft knocking on the door. I saw Abigail all white with blood that was not hers.. He started running. I took her into the house with my wife and went to look for a weapon,” said Avijai Brodetz, who tried with other neighbors to contain the attack.. When he returned, he no longer found his wife Hagar or his children Ofri (10), Yuval (8) and Oriya (4) nor Abigail, the little girl of his great friend Roy.. He thought they were murdered until they notified him of everyone's kidnapping.. Not everyone because Abigail's older brothers, Mijail (9) and Amalia (6) were saved by hiding for more than 10 hours in a closet.

51 days later, grandparents Liza and Carmel followed every movement on television on the minibus leaving Gaza. “I hope they don't forget about her if she falls asleep. She was alone but when she comes she won't be,” Liza promised while Carmel was not all in: “Until I see her in the hands of the soldiers, I don't believe it.”. “I don't trust Hamas terrorists.”. Asked on Channel 13 what he would say when he saw her for the first time, he answered: “Nothing, just hugs and kisses.”

Twenty-four hours earlier, Thomas Hand was able to hug his daughter Emily (9), released in the second round of the four-day ceasefire in which Hamas frees 50 Israeli hostages (among the 239 it held) while Israel releases 150 Palestinian prisoners. (women and adolescents) and increases humanitarian aid to the punished Gaza Strip that has been breathing for three days without bombs, cannon shots and missiles. The two sides seem to agree to extend the truce an additional day for every 10 hostages released, including children and women.

Hand, who immigrated to Israel three decades ago from Ireland, missed Emily's birthday a week ago but not the hope of seeing her again since “the paradise of Kibbutz Beeri” turned into hell.. Then, members of Hamas' Nukba Unit murdered more than 100 people in the town of just over 1,100 people.. Among them, Emily's stepmother. The girl was kidnapped along with her friend Hila Rotem (13) and her mother, Raya.

While Emily was in the depths of some tunnel, her father moved in the heights installed on a roller coaster of powerful emotions.. When he was told in the first few days that Emily had been murdered, Hand contained his anger and even thanked him.. For him, it was better to know that his little girl was dead than to imagine her suffering in the hands of Hamas on sleepless nights.. “It's the best news among the options I had,” she said through tears.

Days later, however, they informed him that there was an error in identifying the body.. “We had a witness who saw how the terrorists took her to a van heading to Gaza,” he revealed.

Like many other parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren, Hand went around the world to ask for his release. “She is now in the hands of Hamas, deep in the tunnels of Hamas,” he shouted at a demonstration near Downing Street in London, recalling that Emily had already lost her mother to cancer at the age of 3.

“I must continue until she is returned to me, it is my only goal in life,” Hand promised.. Objective achieved. Emily returned with her friend Hila although for her the joy is not complete since her mother is still kidnapped in Gaza. Israel protested to Qatari, Egyptian and American mediators alleging that Hamas did not comply with the requirement not to separate children from their mothers.. Yahia Sinwar's group responded that they could not locate her and offered an elderly woman in exchange.. Hila, however, has revealed to her family that she was with her mother all this time until they were separated two days before her release.

As soon as she crossed the border, Maya Regev (21) was rushed to the Soroka hospital where she underwent surgery.. She is the first young woman to return among those kidnapped in the Palestinian armed attack against the music festival near Kibbutz Reim that ended in silence with 364 victims. Maya had gone to the party with her brother Itai who is still kidnapped.

The elderly Alma Avraham, kidnapped from her own home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz and released this Sunday, was rushed by helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. Her life is in danger, the 84-year-old Israeli admits at the health center.

Since Friday, a country in deep trauma and at war, despite the truce, sees and stars in a dramatic series by chapters. Every afternoon, he monitors a batch of faces and names. Every afternoon, Israelis do not take their eyes off the screen to get excited about the return of those who regain their freedom and who since 7-O are now part of their family.