Mother of Kidnapped Israeli Children Prays for a ‘Ray of Hope’

Maayan Zin is a mother who cannot fall asleep at night. Ever since her daughters, Dafna, 15 and Ella, 8, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from their father’s home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, there is nothing that can comfort her.“My battle isn’t over until I get my daughters back home to me,” she tells The Sun. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, all I can think about is how Dafna and Ella are surviving in Hamas captivity.”Dafna and Ella Elkayam spent the weekend with their father and his partner, Dikla, and her 17-year-old son, Tomer, on Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel two weeks ago. Hamas operatives posted a video on Facebook live of the family sitting down inside their house in the kibbutz as terrorists surrounded them with machine guns. Noam was apparently shot in the foot and Ella was also hurt. This week the dead bodies of father Noam, and his partner Dikla and her son Tomer, were identified.Maayan Zin, who last saw a photo of her girls on a Gaza news site last Saturday, says she hasn’t received any word from any humanitarian organization located in Gaza about the welfare of her daughters.“No one has told me anything about my daughters. I have no idea what is happening to them in Gaza. If I could speak to Dafna and Ella, I would tell them to listen to their captors, and to be strong. I’m doing everything in my power to get them out,” she says.Ms. Zin spends hours every day speaking to international media and conducting interviews about her children and the other hostages being held captive. She usually speaks with a volunteer translator by her side to get her message across.“I feel that it is the international community’s responsibility to bring back our children,” she says. “They left us to deal with Hamas on our own all these years and look what happened. What does Hamas want with a 9-month-old baby?” she asks, referring to Kfir Bibas, who also was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists with his mother and four-year-old brother from Kibbutz Nir Oz.Ms. Zin, who has taken time off work, says that her full-time job is finding a way to bring her daughters and the other hostages back. “Hamas went after the weakest and most vulnerable of our nation. They took children, pregnant women, teenagers and the elderly.”“I’m so scared for my girls. My soul shatters every night I go to bed and I think about Dafna and Ella. Why are my girls in Gaza? And why am I safe here? I’m just a regular mom waiting for a ray of hope,” she says.According to the IDF, there are at least 30 Israeli children and youth among the some 220 civilians being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Mother of Kidnapped Israeli Children Prays for a ‘Ray of Hope’

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