Israel
Family and friends of Israeli child express horror of him spending ninth birthday as Hamas hostage
Ohad Munder-Zichri was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border
October 23, 2023 18:29
Ohad Munder-Zichri was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border
October 23, 2023 18:29Family and friends of a young Israeli child kidnapped by Hamas have expressed their horror at him spending his ninth birthday as a hostage of the terror group.
Osnat Meiri, 53, said she feared her nephew Ohad Munder-Zichri had lost his glasses and would not be able to see.
Munder-Zichri was at a family gathering in Kbbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border when Hamas terrorists launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7.
It is understood the terror group abducted Munder-Zichri along with his mother Keren Munder, 54, and his grandparents Ruthi and Avraha, both 78. The nine-year-old’s uncle Roee was murdered.
Meiri told NBC News: "He cannot manage without his glasses. This is something that weighs a lot on his father. He always talks about, ‘What about his glasses?’ I hope they let him keep it.
"You have to understand, we are waiting for them to come back. My cousin lost her brother. My uncle and aunt lost their son.
“They don’t know that their house, that the whole place where they lived for so many years, is ruined.”
To mark Munder-Zichri’s ninth birthday, his father Avi has asked that people take a photo of a balloon and post it with the hashtag Bringthemhomenow.
The family have also launched an online birthday message book for which they are hoping to get one million signatures.
Meanwhile, Borehamwood mum Nivi Feldman discovered her son Lior was on a sports camp with Munder-Zichri just weeks before in Kfar Saba.
“The heart can’t even understand what happened there.”
— Israel in Boston (@IsraelinBoston) October 23, 2023
Ohad Munder Zachri was visiting his grandparents, Abraham and Ruthi, in Nir Oz when Hamas terrorists invaded.
Ohad was kidnapped into Gaza along with his grandparents and his mother, Keren.
Today, Ohad is spending his 9th… pic.twitter.com/RQlxdPsc1K
She told the JC: “We were watching a tribute video of the hostages and there was a clip of the children. My son said to me: ‘Mummy, he was on camp with me. Why is he there?’”
Feldman, who is Israeli, added: “I just wanted to cry. I told him that that there was a picture of him because bad people took him away. My heart is broken.
“My son then started asking me questions such as: ‘Can Hamas come here?’ ‘Can rockets come here?’”
Although she didn’t meet Munder-Zichri herself, Feldman said her son had said that Munder-Zichri was “very sweet”.
Feldman said that she took a pushchair to the exhibit of empty pushchairs in Parliament Square on Sunday, displayed as a reminder of the children who have been kidnapped by Hamas.
Feldman said that hearing her son had been on camp with Munder-Zichri brought home to her that “Munder-Zichri is not just a number. He is someone we met. It is unbelievable that he is a hostage.”
The birthday book for Ohad can be found here.
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