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‘Return my daughters’: A mother’s appeal for her captive children

“I am asking the world, the international community, to return our daughters.”

By Sveta Listratov, TPS

Mayan Zin hasn’t seen her two daughters since they were kidnapped on Oct. 7. Hamas terrorists entered Kibbutz Nahal Oz, killed her ex-husband and 17 year-old son Tomer, and took daughters Dafna, 16 and eight-year-old Ella off to Gaza.

“We know they used Tomer and made him go to the houses in Nahal Oz and tell people to open doors,” Zin told the Tazpit Press Service. “Then they would murder the people who opened the doors in front of his eyes. I cannot and don’t want to imagine what they have seen or heard or were made to do before they got slaughtered.”

She blames the international community for not allowing Israel to take effective measures against the Gaza terror group.

“I demand that they start working to return our hostages held in Gaza, all of them, dead or alive, return all of them – soldiers, children, old men, women, men,” she told TPS. “It’s their fault that all these years they chained us down and didn’t let us defend ourselves and take care of Hamas when it was still a small problem, and now it’s up to them to return our loved ones to us.”

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“I am asking the world, the international community, to return our daughters,” Mayan Zin implored.

“There are autistic children held in Gaza, there are elderly with serious health problems. Someone has to reach out to these people, who have done nothing wrong to anyone. My daughters have done nothing wrong. A mother who makes pancakes for her child on Saturday morning has done nothing to anyone. Those people don’t deserve this suffering, there’s no reason for that, no purpose at all”.

At least 1,400 Israelis were killed in Hamas’s surprise attack on communities near the Gaza border. Fighting lasted for several days as security forces initially struggled to regain control. Another 5,100 were injured.

More than 200 Israelis and foreign nationals were taken captive.

Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the relatives of those taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7, has called on Jews around the world to join its Global Day of Unity and Prayer for the return of all hostages and missing persons on Wednesday.