Aunt of four-year-old Israeli hostage talks about her time in captivity

An aunt of Avigail Idan, the girl who was taken hostage by Hamas after seeing her parents brutally murdered and who turned four just days before her release, says her niece shared one piece of pita bread a day with four others, and that she did too. is not allowed to shower or bathe during her 50 days in captivity.

Avigail, who is a citizen of both Israel and the United States, was held with the four members of the Brodutch family with whom she was kidnapped on October 7. The Brodutches were neighbors of the Idan family on the kibbutz Kfar Aza, and Avigail had hidden with the family after her parents were shot.

According to Aunt Tal Idan, the five hostages were held in above-ground apartments, changing locations at least once. Every day they received a piece of pita bread with za’atar, a spice mixture from the Middle East, to share.

While in captivity, Avigail’s hair was cut because she had developed a significant case of lice, Ms. Idan said in an interview this week. “She was underneath it. It took quite a bit of effort to get her off some of it the first night,” she said.

“It was beautiful curly hair. And now it’s all gone. But it will grow again.”

When Avigail was released on Sunday, she was met at the border in Israel by her grandmother and an aunt. A military helicopter took them to a children’s hospital near Tel Aviv. The military gave her small, pink noise-canceling headphones that she could wear over her ears.

Avigail’s family was relieved to learn that she was not alone during her captivity, and that she was being cared for by Hagar Brodutch, while also caring for her own three children. “We are so grateful to Hagar,” Ms Idan said, calling the 40-year-old “our guardian angel”.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Ms. Idan and her husband have helped care for Avigail’s siblings, Michael, 9, and Amelia, 6, who were not kidnapped. Now, she said, the children are having to adjust to life without their parents.

“For all three of them, the focus is on helping them get a new lease on life – being able to feel safe again and sleep through the night without having nightmares,” she said.