The third group of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza on Sunday evening includes a four-year-old child whose parents were murdered by the Palestinian Hamas terrorists who attacked their community on October 7.
According to Israel’s Army Radio, the group of 14 hostages — 13 Israelis, plus one dual Russian-Israeli national — include ten of the 18 hostages taken from Kfar Aza, a community in which Hamas murdered 100 innocent people. Mothers and their children were among those released.
But four-year-old Avigail Idan — who holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship — will not be returning with her mother or her father, who were killed.
She is now an orphan. It is not clear if she knows what happened to her parents.
The Times of Israel reports that the full list of hostages released on Sunday includes the following:
- Avigail Idan, 4 (Kfar Aza)
- Hagar Brodetz, 40, and her children Ofri, 10, Yuval, 9, and Oriya, 4 (Kfar Aza)
- Chen Almog Goldstein, 48, and her children Agam, 17, Gal, 11 and Tal, 9 (Kfar Aza)
- Alma Avraham, 84 (Nahal Oz)
- Aviva Siegel, 64 (Kfar Aza)
- Sisters Ela, 8 and Dafna, 15, Elyakim (Nahal Oz)
- Roni Krivoi, 25 (dual Russian-Israeli national, Supernova music festival)
In return, Israel will release 39 Palestinian terror convicts (the 14th hostage release was part of a separate deal with Russia).
According to Israel’s Army Radio, Alma Avraham has been taken straight to the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva (Beersheba) for immediate medical attention. The others are being taken to Schneider Children’s Hospital. Another hostage, Maya Regev, who was let go earlier in the four-day “pause” was also taken to Soroka and will require several surgeries but is expected to recover.
Israel is also required, under the deal, to provide additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel claimed on Sunday that Hamas was preventing aid trucks from reaching the Northern Gaza Strip, possibly as part of a propaganda exercise.
Idan’s release marks the first American set free since a mother and daughter from Evanston, IL, were released in October. One of the other hostages released Sunday is also a dual American-Israeli citizen.
U.S. President Joe Biden noted Sunday that Avigail had been taken hostage as a three-year-old and had turned four in captivity.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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