‘He already survived one Holocaust’: granddaughter of Israel’s oldest hostage fears for his life
Shlomo Mantzur, 86, fled to Israel after the Farhud, the massacre and torture of Jews in Baghdad in 1941. Today he is held hostage in Gaza
The granddaughter of Israel’s oldest hostage held in Gaza by terror group Hamas is begging the international community for his release.
In an emotional interview with the Jewish News, Noam Safir, 20 a law student from Eilat, said the family are worried sick.
“He was already slender, weighing around 9 stone, and since former hostages have revealed they were starved inside Gaza we are living through an absolute nightmare,” Noam said.
Shlomo Mantzur, 86, a grandfather of 12 and a carpenter from Kibbutz Kissufim, was taken from his home on 7 October in his pyjamas by the terrorists. His wife of 60 years, Mazal, 78, which means luck in Hebrew, managed to wriggle free from the terrorists as they handcuffed her husband and forced him out.
“They grabbed Grandpa’s car key and drove him in his own car to Gaza,” Noam said.
He later resettled in Israel, where he “should have been enjoying old age” but was taken hostage from his kibbutz on the Gaza border.
“Because he’s from Iraq, he speaks Arabic so we are hoping this is helping him get by, but he doesn’t have his hearing aid so we are so worried. We have not heard one thing since, no released hostages have seen him or heard about him, there has been no sign of life,” Noam said.
Israel believes 133 hostages kidnapped are still being held by the terrorists in Gaza with at least 34 of them already confirmed dead. Earlier this month Hamas said they did not have 40 living hostages who fit the categories of women, children, the elderly and the sick, raising fears among relatives.
“He always saved the crossword puzzle for us to do together, he used to make all these things from scrap and with left over bits from carpentry, he once made me a key ring of a woman when I was four, he is so gifted with his hands. He was the first person to buy me a honda motorcycle when I was 17. A really cool grandpa.”
“I have had so many nightmares, and I cry a lot. I once had a dream that he came back and was about to die in a hospital bed. Once I dreamt we went back in time and I saw him twice, they took one of him and the other disappeared. Grandma has thrown herself into knitting to escape the horrors. She’s been displaced from her home like 200,000 other Israelis.”
“He should be enjoying his senior years. Instead we don’t know what he is going through and it makes me angry because he is just so kind and happy. I just hope that he comes back the happy man he is. First thing I will do when I see him is hug him and kiss him and make sure he’s fine and make sure he knows how important he is and how his being missing has affected the family so badly, he is the glue of our family. We just want him home,” Noam said.
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