The first American hostage to be released during the ceasefire celebrated her fourth birthday in captivity.
On Oct. 7, then-3-year-old Abigail Mor Edan underwent unthinkable trauma when Hamas militants killed her parents. Though initially pinned beneath her father’s body, Abigail fled to a neighbor’s home, where she was then abducted by Hamas. After being held hostage for 50 days — and spending her fourth birthday in captivity — Abigail was released this week during a brief ceasefire. As a dual citizen of Israel and the U.S., she was the first American hostage to return home.
In the wake of Abigail’s homecoming, Katie sat down with Abigail’s great-aunt, Liz Hirsh Naftali, and Abigail’s cousin, Noa Naftali, to discuss the family’s harrowing story. In this heartfelt conversation, the family discusses the circumstances of Abigail’s abduction and tells Katie what’s next for Abigail and her two siblings, all of whom must grapple with the tragic losses of their parents. The Naftalis also explain why they believe the International Red Cross can do more to help the hostages. Additionally, Liz Hirsh Naftali recounts the phone call she had with President Biden after Abigail’s release.
Katie Couric: Last weekend, Abigail was finally released after spending 50 days as a hostage in Gaza. First and foremost, how is she doing?
Liz Naftali: Abigail is safe. She is back in Israel, but she returned to having no parents. They were both murdered on Oct. 7 by Hamas. She can’t go back to her home because her home was destroyed on Oct. 7. So for Abigail, the blessing is that she has her brother and her sister and her cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents who she’s very close with, who she lived right next door to before all of this happened. It’s going to take a long time to really understand how Abigail is, but the blessing is that she is surrounded by the most beautiful and loving family, and they are going to do everything in their power to make sure she has what I would call a beautiful life.
Noa, what has this ordeal been like for you?
Noa Naftali: It’s been horrible. We had to bury Abigail’s parents not knowing where their child is. I think for all of the family members of hostages, we’ve been living an ongoing terror attack, not able to eat, not able to sleep, and just wondering how our loved ones are doing.
What have you learned about the conditions under which Abigail was being held, Liz?
Liz: We’re learning little by little that, basically, it was filthy. They were moved a couple of times. It’s not clear exactly where they were moved to and how they were moved, but they weren’t in one place. It was insect infested. There was not proper food for any child to eat for 50 days. We’re slowly learning, but those are the things that have been shared with us.
You explained to me a couple of weeks ago, Liz, that Abigail was under her father’s body. He had been shot and killed by Hamas terrorists. She managed to get out from under him and run to a neighbor’s home where there was a mom and three children. And Abigail was abducted at the same time this family was abducted.
Liz: Yes. At first, we believed that Abigail had been murdered with her father because her 6- and 10-year-old [siblings] had seen Hamas shoot their father, and he fell onto Abigail. So they ran home. Those were the only reports that we had in the beginning, as they were in a closet for 14 hours in their home. But what we learned [a few days after Oct. 7], was that a witness on the kibbutz had seen the mother and children being taken from the kibbutz by Hamas terrorists. So that was the last we learned of this woman, her three children, and Abigail. After that moment, we did not know anything about them for 50 days.
But, luckily, this mother was there to help Abigail while she was being held hostage.
Noa: We are so grateful to this mother. We can’t imagine what she went through having to experience this herself and navigate this experience.
Liz: This was our one hope, that this woman was holding Abigail and giving her as much love as one could under those conditions. And we could only imagine that that’s what a woman — a mother — would do. And that is what this woman did.
Has Abigail been told that she will never see her mother or father again?
Noa: I think it’s safe to say at this point that Abigail is aware that her parents are gone.
Liz: One of the things that has been very interesting is that the 6-year-old sister [and] the 10-year-old brother, they have been very honest and very clear, and they have articulated the story many, many times about what happened that day. I think that is part of their process, which is to be able to share that with the family and share that with their community. We know that Abigail is a very, very smart little girl, and there isn’t a way to hide those things. And now that she has been home, the people that received her were her aunt and her grandmother. She knows that she does not have parents. How much does a 4-year-old take in on those questions or in that situation? None of us know. But she is very aware of where she is, what happened, and that she is not going to have her parents.
How has it felt to be the recipient of such an outpouring of love and support from so many on Abigail’s behalf?
Noa: It’s been our oxygen. The thing that has kept us going in these really unimaginable circumstances has been the outpouring of love and support for us and for Abigail.
Liz: I’ll just add that the love and support has come from people all over the world, people from all religions, all places. And it’s been what has actually nourished the family in Israel as well as us here doing the work in America.
There are still families who have not had their loved ones returned. And I’m curious if you’ve been in touch with them, how they’re doing, and what those conversations have been like.
Liz: We’ve been in touch with them. We were just with them in D.C. with a group of families this last week. Through this process, [we’ve] become a family. One of the things that people wonder is, wait, you’re still doing this? And yes, we’re still doing this because they’re all of our family. These children, these boys that are in their teens and in their early twenties and in their thirties, they could be our children. They could be Noa’s brother. These girls that are still there, they could be our family. We have become each other’s hope.
The seven-day humanitarian pause has now ended, and the fighting has resumed in Gaza. More than 15,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since this conflict began. What are your hopes for the future?
Noa: We are hopeful that everyone who is working towards guaranteeing another pause and more hostages coming back to their loved ones is still working really hard on that. There is now precedent, there is a framework in place, and we hope to see more people coming home soon.
What are your thoughts when you hear that number? And, of course, we can’t be certain of the exact number because this is coming from Hamas, but certainly there have been so many innocent Palestinians in Gaza killed as a result of this conflict.
Noa: It is incredibly painful. I think that no one knows the cost of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict better than people who have lost their loved ones to this ongoing conflict. I also want to add that there was a ceasefire on Oct. 6. And on Oct. 7, in the morning, it was really, really violently violated. I don’t know what the answer to that is.
Liz: On Oct. 6, there was a ceasefire, [and] on Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists broke that ceasefire. They came in, they murdered, they killed, they tortured, they burned, they raped, they executed babies. The level of what happened on Oct. 7, there’s no precedent for it. But I ask people to keep in mind that what happened on Oct. 7 to people that were living in Israel, they lived along the border with Gaza for many, many years. Our family has lived on this kibbutz for 50 years. And they were peaceful people. Many of them were bringing aid to the Palestinian people. Many were driving these folks from Gaza into Israel for medical treatment. These were people that were innocent in the sense that all they wanted to do was raise their families. All they wanted to do was live life, but also to be thoughtful and helpful to their neighbors. In Gaza, any life that is lost is horrible. But I ask you to understand how this started so that we understand that what we are up against is Hamas terrorism. We are trying to fight Hamas terrorism.
I’d be remiss not to ask you one last question about an explosive story in the New York Times that Israeli intelligence actually knew a year ago about plans for this attack in pretty vivid detail, and the intelligence was dismissed because officials did not think Hamas had the capacity to pull this off. I’m curious to get both of your reactions to that report.
Noa: I just want to emphasize that we are not politicians or military strategists. We are civilians whose family members were killed in this attack, taken hostage in this attack. I think anyone who was in a position of power when this happened in Israel is going to have to answer to it. The role of the Israeli government is to protect Israeli civilians, as I would hope that the role of the Palestinian government would be to protect Palestinian civilians.
Liz: As Noa said, we’re not politicians, we’re not military experts. But when I read that article, yes, my stomach dropped. But with the work that we are doing with all the rest of these families, our focus has to be on getting 150 lives home to their loved ones. So while there is that reporting, we have to let the right people review it, let the right people go and work on that. But for us, our work is literally to go and bring back more people who were abducted, were injured, were shot. We don’t know what has happened to them in 56 days. So that is our lane. That is our focus. We understand that there’s a lot of other things that are happening, but we just keep going.
