EXCLUSIVE: ‘I need my daughters. I need the world to see us.’
Maayan Zin's 8-year-old and 15-year-old daughters were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz and taken to Gaza on Saturday. (Viewer warning: attached video contains distressing images)
Maayan Zin’s two daughters were kidnapped by Hamas on Saturday.
They were with their father Noam at Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel, to celebrate the community’s 70th birthday.
Speaking to Jewish News from Tel Aviv this morning, with her friend Iris beside her to help translate, Maayan says that 8-year-old Ella and 15-year-old Dafna spend most of their time at the kibbutz, together with her ex-husband, his partner Dikla and her 17-year-old son Tomer.
All of them were kidnapped by Hamas on Saturday.
Maayan says: “They were all together. They were all kidnapped together.”
The terrorists shot her ex husband in the leg and she knows that Ella was hurt in some way but is unsure as to the details.
The last time she heard any news was on Saturday, when a picture of the girls appeared on a Gaza news site.
“It was one of both of them together sitting on the floor,” she says.
“The article says the picture is from Gaza but we are not 100 percent sure. They changed their clothes to long sleeved. In Arabic, it says they gave them better clothes for prayer. Because their shorts were not modest.”
“This is what we saw,” says Maayan.
“So we called the police and the government to try and understand what is going on. After a while, an hour or so, we got a video from another person in Haifa. It was of the girls. And it was from Facebook Live.”
She shares the video with us.
Jewish News are posting the link here but be advised it contains distressing images.
She says: “We see the family. They are very scared. Noam is shot in the leg. They are all together. The terrorists are talking to them. They take their ID. They take Noam and Tomer outside, but we don’t see more than that. We see them with guns forcing them to do that. Like a movie.”
On a day to day basis, Maayan is talking to reporters, to the police, psychologists and friends. “We are trying to find any new information. Spreading the pictures and video all over the world.”
She says she is “trying to be strong for her family and her daughters.”
The IDF sent an officer here to help. “He tried to give us answers but there is nothing new.”
Maayan says that Sara Netanyahu, the wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, called to offer support.
“She said she is very sorry and is trying to understand and support. That they are doing everything they can to bring back everybody. And to find these animals from Hamas.”
This Shabbat, Maayan is going to pray and meet some politicians. She is currently staying with “nice families and friends” so that she is not alone.
Her message to the British Jewish community is simple: “I need my daughters. I need the world to see us. My daughters are just two girls. They have woken up to a nightmare. They have woken up to a pogrom. I say to the world to help Israel, for my daughters, for my family and for all the people that are taken to Gaza. They are kids. They are children.”
Promising to keep Jewish News updated, she praises the IDF.
“Our soldiers are very good soldiers. Even before what has happened, whenever they have bombed anything in Gaza, they have sent something to tell the citizens to get away. So they won’t be hurt. So as not to help Hamas. They have to continue what they are doing. To continue to bring them back. We want to live in peace.”
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