Her parents were murdered
Four-year-old Avigail is back with her family
November 27, 2023, 10:34 p.m
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Dozens of people are released as part of Israel’s hostage deal with Hamas. Including a four-year-old girl with US citizenship who had to witness the murder of her parents. Now the relatives have published a picture of the reunion.
A four-year-old American girl who witnessed the murder of her parents in the Hamas massacre in Israel and was abducted to the Gaza Strip has been reunited with her family. The child’s family published photos of the reunion. The girl was released on Sunday evening as part of an agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas.
A photograph circulated in Israeli media showed little Avigail smiling on her aunt’s lap on a bed in a children’s hospital, with her uncle and grandparents present. On October 7th, the then three-year-old experienced the terrorist attack with her two siblings, aged ten and six, in a kibbutz on the border with the Gaza Strip. The attackers shot the mother in front of the three children, as US media reported.
When the father lay protectively over his daughter, he was also shot. Her siblings survived because they hid in a closet. They said they stayed there for 14 hours until they were rescued. Avigail, who was initially thought to be dead, reportedly crawled out from under her father’s body and ran to a neighbor’s house.
The terrorists picked up her and the neighboring family there and deported them all to the Gaza Strip. Last Friday the girl turned four years old in captivity. “What she had to endure is unimaginable,” said US President Joe Biden. According to her relatives, the girl will now live with her siblings with her aunt, uncle and grandparents in Israel. Since Friday, 58 of the approximately 240 hostages held by Hamas have been released.