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‘How is our daughter still captive in Gaza?’ Edgware United synagogue hears from Hostage Family Forum
Tel Aviv-based volunteer Rachel Bar Chen shares stories of families ripped apart by 7 October
A volunteer with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Tel Aviv shared her experiences at a packed hall in north London on Monday evening.
Rachel Bar Chen supports several families through the forum and visited Edgware United synagogue to give an emotional insight into the events of 7 October.
She told the story of Merav, mother of Agam Berger, a 19-year-old soldier who had just arrived at her new army base on 6 October. Recalling a phone call from her daughter, just before Agam was posted to the south, Merav remembers her instinctive misgivings about her daughter’s transfer to the south. Bar Chen shared Merav’s agonising question: “How has another day passed and still our daughter and all the other hostages remain captive in Gaza?”
Judi and Gadi Haggai, a peace-loving and caring couple from Kibbutz Nir Oz, had been on their regular early-morning walk when their children received a message at 06:45 saying they were face down in a field with hundreds of missiles overhead.
Their four children urged them to be in contact as soon as they arrived home, but no further communication was received. For 83 excruciating days, said Bar Chen, they frantically tried to find their parents. They clung to the hope that they were still alive. Finally, they were told that, alongside many other members of the kibbutz, their parents had been murdered.
• To support the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, click here
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