During a holiday visit
to his grandparents' kibbutz of Nir Oz on the border with Gaza, the
fourth-grader from the Israeli city of Kfar Saba in the center was taken into
custody along with his mother and grandparents.
The attack resulted in
the death of Ohad's adored uncle. The boy, his mother, and his grandparents
vanished, and the only trace of them was a cellphone signal that could be
linked to Gaza.
The uncertainty has
caused Ohad's grieving father, Avi Zichri, the most agony.
"I keep picturing
the struggles he faces. He is a tender young man. Did he spot any corpses? He
has eyeglasses on. Did they rob him of them? Does he have any vision? On his
front porch, chain smoking cigarettes out of nervousness, Zichri said.
"I'm constantly considering all possibilities and hoping for the least
disastrous one. I just want to make sure he's with his mother and safe.
According to Zichri,
who has been experiencing this nightmare for 17 days, the only relief he has is
when he takes sleeping pills, which put him to sleep for the night.
"And then I wake
up in the morning and feel guilty for not thinking about them in my
sleep," said the 69-year-old.
Zichri and his partner
Keren Munder, a 54-year-old special education teacher and volleyball coach for
kids with disabilities, have one child together, Ohad. He is also the sole
descendant of Avraham and Ruti Munder, both 78, who vanished with them from Nir
Oz, where it is thought that about 80 people, or nearly a quarter of the town's
inhabitants, were held hostage. Ohad cherished going there to see his
grandparents and his uncle.
Ohad is a talented
student who enjoys playing chess, soccer, tennis, and Rubik's cubes at home. He
is an avid supporter of Liverpool FC, and his bedroom has remained unaltered
since his kidnapping. It is decorated with team memorabilia, his various
trophies, family photos, and the elaborate Lego creations he loved to make.
He is very verbally
skilled, charming, and extremely intelligent. He constantly teaches me new
things, and sometimes I forget that he is only nine," Zichri said.
Ohad's birthday
provided an opportunity to spread awareness of his situation.
Support from both
domestically and internationally has been overwhelming. Michael Herzog, the
Israeli ambassador to the United States, started a global social media campaign
to ask for virtual birthday greetings for him.
Numerous well-known
Israeli athletes and members of Ohad's favorite Israeli soccer team have
recorded birthday greetings and wishes for his safe return. Around his hometown
of Kfar Saba, yellow balloons bearing messages honoring his birthday while held
captive were dispersed.
But Zichri, whose every
moment was consumed by anxiety, saw it as just another painful day in a string
of them.
On October 7, Zichri
heard air-raid sirens alerting him to approaching rockets while he was waiting
for Ohad and his mother to return. Even though he was aware that Munder and
Ohad were much closer, he still reached out to touch them.
Zichri displayed their
final communications by removing his phone.
At 7:24 a.m., Munder
wrote, "There is nonstop firing here and there is concern that terrorists
have infiltrated the villages."
She reported that she
had locked the door to the safe room where they were hiding. She claimed to
have forgotten her phone's charger in the kitchen and that the battery might
soon expire, but she was still able to inform Zichri that they had switched off
the news so that Ohad could stealthily watch a TV program to keep him occupied
and distracted from what was happening outside.
She left a message at
7:39 a.m. that said, "Let's hope this ends quickly with no one getting
hurt." "Take care of yourself and follow the homefront command
instructions."
It was typical of
Munder, according to Zichri, to "always worry about others before
herself."
Every time there is
news of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, Zichri said he shudders and wonders if his
family members were hurt. The encouragement of a select group of friends and
the hope of one day being reunited with his son and Munder and falling into
their arms in a tearful embrace are the only things that keep him going during
the endless, agonizing wait for information.
All I can do, he said,
is hope. "There is nothing else I can do."
Σχόλια
Δημοσίευση σχολίου