Gaza strip. Hundreds of kidnapped persons are still in the hands of Hamas fighters. Account of the woman whose husband was kidnapped

Leshai Lavi had only seconds to send her husband Omri a final message before he was kidnapped by Hamas fighters as they stormed their kibbutz on October 7.

The woman told Reuters reporters that members of the Islamic group, brandishing firearms, forced the family to move to a nearby house and took her 46-year-old husband.

– I told him in four sentences that I love him, that I will take care of our daughter, and that I am waiting for him. I also told him: Don’t be a hero, because I want you to come back here.

Israeli authorities say that on one of the most shocking days in Israel’s 75-year history, more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 Israelis and foreigners were captured and held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched a military attack on the Gaza Strip, which, according to the Palestinian authorities, killed more than 13,000 people.

Israeli military leaders pledged to free as many hostages as possible.

The days of waiting are difficult for the families of the hostages. Lavie must answer her two-year-old daughter Ronnie’s increasingly persistent questions about what happened to her father.

– He asks where my father is. At first she thought my father had gone to work. Two days later, I assumed that Baba had gone on a trip. Lafi added, and after today she said, and we have told her until now, that “Daddy is lost.”

Much of the world’s attention has focused on children and elderly hostages, but Lavie said the spouses and children kidnapped by militants should not be forgotten either.

– I need my age again, I need my legs. I want the whole world to understand that my life was taken from our home, in underwear, without shoes, I pleaded with Lavi.