On the morning of October 7th, Hamas militants broke into the home of Ella, 8, and Dafna Elyakim, 15, and live-streamed the attack as they shot and killed their father, murdered his partner, Dikla, and forced her son, Tomer, to trick other residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz into false safety before murdering him as well. Dafna and Ella were taken to Gaza in their murdered father’s car and placed in the home of a Gazan family. There, they were psychologically tortured as Hamas members told repeatedly that they would only go home in coffins and that no one in Israel cared about them. Over the course of their 50 days in captivity, the sisters were held in two houses, a school, and finally a subterranean tunnel. As they were finally being released on November 26, a Hamas operative whispered to them: “We know where you live and we’ll come and kill you if you reveal where you were held captive.” The bravery of these two young girls is astounding. They are heroes. But they shouldn’t have to be.
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