The family of an American girl who is expected to be among 50 hostages released by Hamas has said they hope she is home in time for her fourth birthday on Friday.
Abigail Mor Edan, 3, was among those snatched by the terror group from her kibbutz in southern Israel during the brutal October 7 atrocities.
Her father Roy Edan, 43, a photojournalist, and his wife Smadar Edan, 40, were murdered but she escaped to a neighbor’s home.
Her 10-year-old brother and six-year-old sister, who saw their parents being executed, hid for 14 hours and survived while Abigail was kidnapped.
Now she is expected to be among the 50 hostages released after a fragile deal was brokered between Israel and Hamas. Two American women are also among them.
Abigail’s great aunt Elizabeth Naftali, who lives in Los Angeles, said the family was praying the agreement is upheld and the girl is released.
Abigail Mor Edan, 3, has both American and Israeli citizenship and was living in Israel when terrorists from Gaza stormed her kibbutz, Kfar Azza, on October 7
Abigail’s great aunt Elizabeth Naftali, who lives in Los Angeles , on Tuesday night told how the family were praying the agreement is upheld and the girl is released
‘Well I am hopeful, our family is hopeful and it’s been 45 days since Abigail was abducted, taken to Gaza,’ she told CNN on Tuesday night.
’45 days ago, her mother and father were murdered by Hamas terrorists, this little three-year-old is somewhere in Gaza.
‘I hope she is with the mother that was taking care of her at that time with her own three kids.
‘And I hope that Abigail is being taken care of and left, and this deal will follow through and these hostages, these children, will be back home with their families in the next couple of days.’
She continued: ‘Exactly. You have a three-year-old, can you imagine that your three- year-old would be with another mother and her three kids for 45 days?
‘I mean, it’s excruciating. And for our family, we have spent the last seven weeks, seven weeks, worrying, wondering, praying, hoping.
‘Abigail has a sister who is six, a brother who is 10, these two children saw their parents both be murdered.
‘They spent 14 hours in a closet on the 7th of October, hiding . The one thing that we all hold onto is that hope that Abigail comes home, she comes home by Friday.
‘Friday is her fourth birthday and there’s nobody that is giving up hope, it’s just that we actually need to see Abigail come out then we will be able to believe it.’
She added: ‘We spent all day today, and we watched the news and we are still at this place where we haven’t seen, we don’t know any details about any of our hostages.
‘And so, I hope that starting tomorrow, we will start to learn more about the hostages and we will start to see children, women, be the first group that is released.’
Abigail Mor Edan, three, was among those snatched by the terror group from her kibbutz in southern Israel during the brutal October 7 atrocities
Abigail’s father Roy Edan, 43, and his wife Smadar Edan, 40, were murdered by Hamas. Their two eldest children, Michael and Amalia, hid in a closet and are alive. Abigail, their youngest (pictured far left) is currently a hostage in Gaza
Abigail’s six-year-old sister, Amalia, and 10-year-old brother Michael witnessed Hamas come into their home and murder their mother, Smadar Edan, 40.
The two children ran to find their father, Roy, who was outside holding Abigail. They started fleeing to shelter, but a Hamas terrorist killed Roy.
The older children ran back into their house, where their mother’s lifeless body was, and locked themselves in a closet.
Michael made a chilling phone call to his grandfather Carmel while they were trapped inside the closet.
He said: ‘Grandpa, terrorists killed dad outside the house, they killed mom and Abigail inside. I’m alone with Amalia.’
They hid there for 14 hours until they were rescued by a relative and brought to a shelter. Abigail somehow managed to find her way to her neighbor.
The Brodutch family took Abigail in as the rampage started. The mother, Hagar, her three children, and Abigail then disappeared.
Abigail’s father Roy Edan, 43, a photojournalist, and his wife Smadar Edan, 40, were buried on October 20.
Friends and family mourn Smadar Edan and Roy Edan, who were killed following the deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip
Abigail’s great aunt, Elizabeth Naftali, is an LA-based real estate developer. She said they are desperately hoping she is home in time for her birthday on Friday
The Israeli cabinet on Tuesday night approved a deal that will see 50 women and children kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 freed during a ‘four-day truce’.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet where he demanded they support the temporary pause in fighting after the US and Qatar spent weeks thrashing out the deal.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas is to free 50 women and children of the around 240 hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip over a four-day period, the Israeli government said.
It said it would extend the lull by an additional day for every 10 hostages released.
Hamas is to release 12 Israeli women and children every night for four days. In return, Israel will allow 300 aid trucks into Gaza every day of the ceasefire and free 150 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, according to sources close to the talks.
It was not immediately clear when the truce would go into effect, but a Qatari official said this morning that it will be announced within the next 24 hours.
Netanyahu said Israel would resume its offensive against Hamas after the cease-fire expires.
He said in a statement: ‘There is a lot of nonsense out there to the effect that after the pause to return our hostages, we will stop the war.
‘Then let me make it clear: We are at war – and will continue the war. We will continue the war until we achieve all of our war aims.
‘To eliminate Hamas, return all of our hostages and our missing, and ensure that there is no element in Gaza that threatens Israel.’
Another statement by the PM’s office said: ‘The Israeli government, the Israeli army and the security forces will continue the war to bring back all those kidnapped, eliminate Hamas and ensure that there is no longer any threat to the State of Israel from Gaza.’
The Ministry of Justice published a list of 300 Palestinians who will be released as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Among those released are operatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Front and some were tried in military courts and some in civilian courts.
According to Israeli law anyone who opposes the release of a political prisoner can apply to have them kept in jail, and the list was mainly people under 18 and women.
Officials from the CIA and Israeli intelligence service Mossad were said to have been involved in the talks in Qatar, and ahead of the cabinet meeting Mr Netanyahu had said: ‘I hope there will be good news soon.’
Netanyahu convened his War Cabinet for the vote last night. The meeting stretched well into the early hours today, underscoring the sensitivity of a proposal that would suspend an Israeli offensive against Hamas before it has reached its goals.
Netanyahu (pictured) showed his determination to press on with his objective of wiping out Hamas and said in a statement: ‘There is a lot of nonsense out there to the effect that after the pause to return our hostages, we will stop the war’
This comes as families of hostages and their supporters demanded that Netanyahu secures the release of Israeli hostages (pictured: protesters in Tel Aviv on November 18)
Netanyahu addressed his cabinet to discuss a temporary ceasefire to allow an exchange, as currently the Gaza Strip is under Israeli bombardment (pictured above in northern Gaza yesterday)
Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu sought to assure the government ministers that the break was only tactical, vowing to resume the offensive after the truce expires. Top security officials also attended the meeting.
Meanwhile the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad has announced the death of one of the Israeli hostages it has held since the October 7 attacks on Israel.
They said: ‘We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death.’
Reports online named the hostage as 76-year-old Katzir Hanna, kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz, and a source close the families said simply: ‘She is no longer with us.’
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had said before the cabinet meeting last night: ‘We are close to reaching a deal on a truce.’ Similarly US President Joe Biden, who alongside Qatar helped broker the deal, commented that he believed a deal was ‘now very close’.
In his address to the cabinet, Netanyahu said that accepting a deal for the release of hostages was ‘a difficult decision but it’s a right decision’.
President Biden had helped ‘improve the framework being laid out before you… to include more hostages at a lower price’, he told his cabinet as it met to vote on the deal. ‘The entire security establishment fully supports it.’
Biden reportedly worked ‘hour by hour’ on the deal.
The hostages’ families had demanded that Israel should insist on the return of all those being held, and the Religious Zionist party, which is part of Netanyahu’s coalition government, had voiced opposition to the deal, denouncing it as ‘bad’ for Israel’s security, for the hostages and soldiers.
Israeli tanks operate in a location given as Gaza, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas, which was now halted for a ‘five-day truce’
Black smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel
Gil Dickmann (left) watches as Hen Avigdori (center) speaks against the proposed legislation. This comes as hostages’ families clashed with Israeli politicians over talk of death penalty
An Israeli tank on its way to Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, yesterday
Netanyahu said the deal ‘will allow the IDF to prepare for a continuation of the fight – the war is ongoing, and it will continue until we achieve all of our objectives: destroying Hamas and bringing back all the hostages.’
There was speculation last night that Irish-Israeli Emily Hands, who celebrated her ninth birthday in captivity, would be among those released.
Initially it had been thought Emily was murdered – with her father Thomas saying she hoped she has been and then the family was notified she was alive.
Israel reportedly named her as among the first handful of hostages earmarked for release but there was no official confirmation.
Initially the plan would be for women and children to go free first and in exchange, Palestinian prisoners held in Israel would go the other way.
However an Israeli government official said that any prisoner put forward for release could have the decision overturned if families of victims of their crimes opposed it.
The spokesman said: ‘If any of the these prisoners have blood on their hands, then the families of their victims have 24 hours to oppose their release by applying to the Supreme Court.’
It is hoped that hostages will be released from Thursday and Friday, but there is no official confirmation yet.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari suggested that the hostage deal will not impact the military’s main goal of eliminating the Hamas terror group.
He said: ‘The goal of returning the hostages is significant. Even if it results in the reduction of some of the other things, we will know how to restore our operational achievements.’
The parents and relatives of children kidnapped on October 7th take part in a demonstration outside the UNICEF headquarters in Tel Aviv to protest their silence to 40 children held hostage in Gaza
A picture taken from a position near Sderot along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli bombardment on Gaza
Smoke and flame rise in Gaza seen from Sderot, Israel, as Israeli attacks continue on the 46th day of the war
He added the military will ‘first update the families of the hostages, and then the public’.
Meanwhile Hamas sources said that they had lost touch with ‘some groups holding hostages’ and they wanted the no fly clause so they could carry out searches without being spied on from the skies.
Opposition parties in Israel voiced fears before the deal that giving too much will see the terrorists gain the upper hand.
The far right fear that soldiers, who are not included in any deal, will be kept on for months or possibly years as was Gilad Shalit, held for five years before being released in 2011 in a prisoner swap.
In Qatar, foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said ‘we’re very optimistic, very hopeful’ and told reporters before the truce deal was confirmed: ‘We are at the closest point we ever had been in reaching an agreement.’
President Biden, who does not support a full ceasefire, had said a temporary truce was ‘now very close’, adding: ‘We could bring some of these hostages home very soon. But I don’t want to get into the details of things because nothing is done until it’s done.’
British-Israeli Sharone Lifschitz, whose mother Yocheved, 85, was released by Hamas late last month but whose father is still being held said she was ‘hopeful’.
She said: ‘Everyone is incredibly anxious at the moment, but I think it must be the children who go first and they shouldn’t be separated from their mothers.
‘But this is all part of Hamas plan to put us through an impossible situation, its a form of psychological torture.’
Mrs Lifschitz added any exchange would be through the Rafah crossing in the south and she said: ‘It usually starts with a small handful to see how things go from that, but the children should come first.’
Although a temporary halt may come as a welcome relief it is unlikely that it will mark an end to the conflict which has seen more than 14,000 Palestinians killed and 68 Israeli soldiers lost.
Israeli media reported last night that among those killed in Gaza was Jamal Muhammad Haniyeh grandson of Hamas leader in exile in Qatar Ismail Haniyeh.
Portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in Tel Aviv
The release of hostages seized by Hamas could be approved by the Israeli government within ‘hours’ of a hostage deal being agreed, a senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu has said. Pictured: Israel soldiers transfer detained Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip on November 21
Israeli soldiers operate in a location given as Gaza, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas, in this image released on November 21
Hopes of a release deal had been mounting since Qatar on Sunday said only ‘minor’ practical issues remained.
Speculation grew further when the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is often involved in prisoner exchanges and hostage releases, said Monday its president had met Haniyeh in Qatar.
Fighting raged on in Gaza’s bloodiest ever war yesterday despite talks of the upcoming temporary truce, sparked by the October 7 attack in which Israel says Hamas gunmen killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In retaliation, Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza. According to the Hamas government, the war has killed more than 14,100 people, including nearly 6,000 children and close to 4,000 women.
Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which also participated in the attacks, said on condition of anonymity that their groups had agreed to the terms of a truce deal last night.
The BRICS group of nations including Russia, India and China also called for an ‘immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities’ in Gaza aimed at drawing up a common response to the conflict.
Rafah resident Hamza Abdel Razeq had said a ceasefire would bring some respite for Gazans who have endured Israel’s bombing and expanding ground offensive.
‘The people are really suffering,’ he said. ‘If they reach a five-day truce deal now, I believe it will pave the way for longer truces or even a total ceasefire.’
Another resident, Mahmud Abu Najm, added: ‘We… pray to God for its success because the people are enduring an unbearable situation.’
Large parts of Gaza have been flattened by thousands of air strikes, and the territory is under siege, with minimal food, water and fuel allowed to enter.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said air strikes had hit ‘around 250’ Hamas targets in the past day, destroying three underground shafts in the Jabalia area, which it said it had fully surrounded. Two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza, it added.
Smoke, rising over the destroyed buildings following the Israeli attacks on Gaza, is seen from the southern city of Sderot in Israel on November 21
Portraits of Israeli children hostages are displayed during a rally outside the Unicef offices in Tel Aviv on November 20, 2023 to demand the release of Israelis held hostage in Gaza
Israel’s Prime Minister has said the country is ‘making progress’ in the deal that is reportedly being mediated through Qatari officials. Israeli soldiers are seen taking detained Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, November 21
In Lebanon, official media said two journalists from Al-Mayadeen television and two other civilians were killed in cross-border shelling in the south. Israel said it was ‘looking into the details’ of the incident.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said 53 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war.
Meanwhile, the health ministry in the occupied West Bank said the Israeli army killed one Palestinian in Nablus.
Medics and patients have been increasingly caught up in the fighting, as Israel expanded its operation across northern Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry said Israel had laid siege to and hit the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia on Monday, killing dozens, but there was no independent confirmation of the toll.
The Israeli army said later its troops had ‘directly targeted’ the source of fire from within the Indonesian Hospital.
Twenty-eight premature babies from Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, were taken to Egypt for treatment on Monday. Three others remained in southern Gaza, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Two babies died before the evacuation, it said.
The Indonesian Hospital lies near Gaza’s largest refugee camp Jabalia, which has been the scene of intense Israeli bombing.
The health ministry official said there were still about 400 patients inside the hospital, as well as 2,000 people seeking shelter.
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict
Hamas officials are ‘close to reaching a truce agreement’ with Israel and the group has delivered its response to Qatari mediators, Ismail Haniyeh (right) said in a statement. Pictured with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on 31 October
Parents and relatives of those kidnapped on October 7 protested in Tel Aviv yesterday
Around 200 people were evacuated from the hospital on Monday and bussed to the relative safety of a hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said three doctors, including two it employed, were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al-Awda hospital in Jabalia refugee camp.
Israel says Hamas uses medical facilities to hide fighters and as bases for operations, making them legitimate military objectives, while insisting it does everything possible to limit harm to civilians.
But criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war has grown, from international agencies and some governments, with protests held worldwide.
The WHO said it was ‘appalled’ by the strike on the Indonesian Hospital, calling it just one of 164 documented attacks on health facilities and workers since the war began.
The UN children’s agency, meanwhile, warned that fuel shortages and worsening sanitation in Gaza were shaping up to be ‘a perfect storm for tragedy’ through the spread of disease.