The final numbers showed that there were about 43 citizens with dual Argentine-Israeli nationality at the scene of the incident, of which 24 died and others were kidnapped. Some of them returned, but eight remain who are still held in the Gaza Strip.
Ofelia Feler Roitman, 77, is literally one of those survivors. She spent 50 days locked up in a family home in the Gaza Strip, without windows and almost without food, until she was exchanged – at the end of November – for Palestinian prisoners along with other kidnapped women and children.
In that confinement, Ofelia had no idea what was happening out there. He only made constant efforts not to go crazy. Today, a year after that nightmare that continues to haunt her, she told Newsweek magazine: “All of this is very painful for those of us who were inside and who were able to get out. We have to exert the necessary force so that those who are still in Gaza They can return. Whether they are alive, we think so, or they are dead. That they can reach their homeland and be helped in hospitals or buried.”
In the same kibbutz of Nir Oz – where more than half of the Argentines were kidnapped – the Cunio family also lives a true nightmare, to this day. A nightmare that extends to this day because the brothers David and Ariel – with his girlfriend Arbel Yehud – remain kidnapped in the Gaza Strip.
In David’s case, he was last seen in a hospital when he was separated from his wife Sharon and twin daughters Julie and Emma, (as well as his sister-in-law Danielle Aloni and daughter Emilia) when they were handed over to Israel in the exchange. of prisoners from November 2023.
“You can’t imagine what we experienced at that moment, nor what we saw after we left the safe rooms of our homes,” confesses Silvia Cunio.
The terrorists could not open the shelter where she and her husband José Luis took refuge. “My husband, thank God, had the strength to hold the door handle the four times they tried to open it. And the same thing happened with my son Lucas. But the other three were not as lucky.”
Eitan, his wife and their two daughters (four and two years old), almost died from suffocation from the smoke of the fire caused by the terrorists, but they were saved by friends who rescued them when they had already fainted.
On the other hand, his twin David was not as lucky. They also burned his house and since they were suffocating, he tried to take one of his daughters out to a neighbor’s house and they were caught.
They knew nothing more about David. Nor about Ariel, who lost all trace of him on October 7 at 8:28 when he sent them the last message: “We are entering a horror movie.”
They took him and his girlfriend Arbel Yehul. “From that moment on, we didn’t know anything else.” Between the pain and uncertainty for those who are missing, Silvia only wishes “for there to be peace, for the war to end, which leads to nothing; only deaths, atrocities and misery.”
Two other brothers who were in Nir Hoz and who were kidnapped are the Horns. As it was a holiday weekend, Iair, the eldest who lived in that kibbutz, had invited Eitan to spend a couple of days. And for that reason they were together when they were taken by Hamas terrorists and even today they remain held in the Gaza Strip, among the 65 (out of 101) who are supposedly still alive. The other 36 are estimated to be deceased.
Itzik Horn, father of Iair and Eitan, said: “As the days go by, the situation becomes more difficult. The political situation in the country does not present any type of sign that a negotiation with an agreement for free the hostages. We continue demonstrating every Saturday night.
Itzik has a critical look at how Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is handling the hostage issue: “If the government had done everything it would take to get the hostages out, this note would not be being carried out. After a year “The kidnapped people are still in the hands of the terrorist organization and we cannot know who is alive and who is not.”
Itzik Horn has not heard from his children since the end of 2023 when some freed hostages told him that Iair and Eitan were alive. Even so, he does not lose hope: “If I did not keep faith that they are alive, I would be finished.”
The Silberman Bibas family completes the list of those still kidnapped: they are Shiri Silberman, her husband Yarden Bibas and their young children Ariel and Kfir.
In late 2023, a Hamas statement claimed that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been killed by an Israeli bombing. And then a video appeared of Yarden, the father, breaking down in front of the cameras, blaming Netanyahu for what happened.
The family is convinced that the man was forced by the terrorists to record that message and even today they maintain hope that they will all return alive because no one confirmed this lethal Hamas version.
Sandra Miasnik, niece of José “Yossi” Silberman – Shiri’s father who was murdered along with his Peruvian wife Margit that October 7 also in Nir Oz – tells Newsweek that there is no information about them.
Nobody saw them in Gaza. The last record is a video of when the terrorists beat Yarden who went ahead so that they did not reach his family and another heartbreaking one in which Shiri is seen crying hugging her two little ones on a sheet, surrounded by armed militiamen.
Kfir became an icon of the global demand for hostages since he was the smallest kidnapped: “One did not know the convenience or not of that popularity. If it was going to be positive because it could be that they wanted to protect them more because it was a currency of very valuable change or, on the contrary, making it more difficult to release precisely for the same reason. That was one of the great family dilemmas,” says Sandra.
Today family members wait in the midst of uncertainty and pain. Something recurring among the families of the victims and those affected themselves is the feeling that much of the world is turning its back on them, perhaps because the attacks with which Israel responded have already left more than 40,000 dead in the Gaza Strip.
They are going through the worst nightmare. The one that broke out a year ago: the day the gates of hell opened.
Source: NA and Newsweek
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
