Everyone has a favorite cousin. Even at 91, Avigail Schlessinger of Jerusalem speaks of her cousin, Ditza Heiman, 84, fondly. Right before the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, Ditza called Avigail to wish her a happy holiday. The two elderly women chatted for nearly an hour. 

Avigail couldn’t even remotely imagine what would happen to her beloved cousin the next morning. Ditza was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists as they stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz and destroyed Ditza’s home. 

“She’s an amazing woman,” Ms. Schlessinger tells the Sun. “We have known each other since childhood. She worked as a social worker, and has a huge heart, always helping everyone that she can. She was widowed at a young age and raised four children on her own. I just don’t understand what Hamas wants from Ditza.”

Avigail is particularly worried that her elderly cousin is being abused by Hamas. “Ditza needs food, water, and her medicine. I hope the Red Cross is in the picture, giving her and the other hostages the humanitarian aid they need.” 

Nir Oz is situated in the western Negev, six miles from the Gaza Strip. On Saturday morning, October 7, dozens of killers from Hamas entered Kibbutz Nir Oz, burning down homes, shooting at residents, and abducting women, children, and the elderly.

Kibbutz residents tried to fight back but were outnumbered. Israel Defense Forces were unable to get the kibbutz until hours later. Eventually they regained control of the kibbutz from the Hamas terrorists.  

The damage was done and Kibbutz Nir Oz, like other Israeli communities along the Gaza border, has been devastated. Dozens of people were murdered or are missing, including Ditza Heiman, who helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz in the mid-1950s. The surviving 160 residents of Nir Oz, who have lost everything they own in the Hamas siege, have been evacuated to Eilat. 

Ms. Heiman’s family last spoke with Ditza at 10 a.m. on Saturday. “I spoke to my mom right before she entered the bomb shelter,” Dafna Heiman tells the Sun. “The terrorists hadn’t arrived yet, and we were communicating with her the entire morning.” 

“There was a rocket alarm and she had to go to the bomb shelter, which is something we are used to. But later we had a feeling that there was more than just rockets to fear when she stopped answering our calls.”

Dafna, who lives near her mother in a settlement called Sde Avraham, tried incessantly to call her mother, along with other family members, but to no avail. In the late afternoon, Heiman called her mother again and this time a terrorist answered.

“‘It’s Hamas’ was what I got when I dialed my mother’s number,” she relates. “I was so frightened that I hung up and immediately called my brother who notified the police. A nephew also called my mom’s number and got the same response.” 

Dafna was later able to contact her mother’s neighbors who told her that the last they had seen of her mother was her screaming for someone to help her outside on the lawn.

“The neighbor next door went outside to help my mother after he heard her screaming. He tried to shoot the terrorists but couldn’t fight them off. They sprayed bullets at him and he had no choice but to escape back into his house. From this point onwards, we know nothing about what happened to my mother.” 

“My mother is a good woman, a strong woman. She’s very much loved,” said Dafna, her voice cracking. 

More than 900 Israelis including civilians and soldiers have been killed in the attacks by Hamas, with the largest number of civilians ever massacred since the establishment of the Jewish state, according to an IDF spokesman, Jonathan Conricus.

An estimated 100 Israelis, including a Holocaust survivor, have been kidnapped by Hamas gunmen and are being held hostage in Gaza while more than 2,200 Israelis have been wounded. It appears that 1,000 Hamas terrorists were able to freely enter Israel in 15 different places once the security fence was breached. The terrorists entered dozens of Israeli communities and cities, and went from house to house searching for civilians. 

As for Avigail Schlessinger, she says that the only thing she can do for her cousin is to pray. “I say the Psalms everyday,” she says, “for her.”