Hamas militants killed Maayan as she tried to help her father hold the door of the bomb shelter shut, then held the rest of the family, including two young children, at gunpoint on their kitchen floor for hours. Maayan’s lifeless body was just several metres away. All the while, the terrorists livestreamed the Idan family’s ordeal on Facebook from Gali’s phone until Tsachi, 50, was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
“I cannot grieve about Maayan yet because I’m in an ongoing war to save my husband,” Gali told Blitzer in a televised interview on Thursday. “I didn’t [go] to see her grave. I couldn’t, and it’s going to be a year, and I need to go and see her, and I can’t – I need Tsachi to be here and we need to do it together.”
Gali said the latest she has heard of her husband’s condition was at the end of November, during the last release of hostages from Gaza: “I had an eyewitness say that she was with him for a day or two and she talked to him, and he was really emotionally down, thinking about Maayan and what happened.”
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Gali said it was “unimaginable” that the hostages have not all been returned to Israel.
“It’s been unbearable. We have no air anymore. They have to come back.”
When Blitzer asked if she had any hope that the negotiations taking place between Israel and Hamas will result in a ceasefire deal which will include the release of her husband, Gali said: “Most definitely. Yes. The only way Tsachi and the other hostages can come back is a deal.”
In terms of the looming threat of an Iranian attack and a potential regional war with Lebanon and Iranian proxies, Gali said she was trying to filter the outside information and “keep my eye on the hostages and on Tsachi, my husband, my loved one, my better half.”
“I miss his voice, I miss his hugs, and I miss the time that we have together,” Gali said. “I miss him joking with the kids and laughing, and making dinner with him, and watching a movie, and taking a walk. I miss every little thing.”
Gali said that her other children – Shachar, 10, Yael, 12, and Sharon, 16 “are all talking about Mayaan all the time.”
“A few days ago Sharon came to my room crying in the middle of the night and said, ‘I want my daddy. I want dad here and I miss Maayan.’”
“What can I say to her?” Gali said. “What answer is there? I can’t bring her her dad. I wish I could.”
