Sa patuloy na hidwaan ng Israel at Hamas, ilang inosente na ang nadadamay. Sa isang exclusive interview, ibinahagi ng Israeli na si Shelly Tov kung paano kinidnap ng Hamas ang kanyang anak.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Ms. Shelly, good afternoon.
00:05 And thank you so much for granting us this interview.
00:09 I know it's really so difficult for you to be doing this,
00:13 but it is also very important for us, for the world to know your story.
00:20 Okay, so maybe you can start now.
00:23 Can you tell us how did you learn about your son, Omer, being taken by the Hamas?
00:31 Okay, so on Friday night, Omer, after a Shabbat dinner, he went to a festival.
00:43 I didn't know where is the festival.
00:46 I knew that he went with his friends.
00:49 And that's it. We went to sleep early in the morning, 6.30.
00:57 We woke up to alarms and bomb shots.
01:02 Immediately we called Omer and he said that he's okay and they will come back home later.
01:12 In our crazy country, bomb shots, we got used to it.
01:22 And I went back to sleep.
01:28 I didn't imagine that my life will change into a nightmare.
01:34 And then after my husband called him a few times, and then on 9 a.m.
01:42 I called him because we saw that something bad happened.
01:48 And I called him, he was in panic, afraid.
01:55 He told me, "Mom, there is a shotgun here."
02:00 We got in the car, in his friend's car, and we are trying to escape from here.
02:07 I told him, my daughter told him, "Send us a live location."
02:14 He sent us the live location and the phone stopped.
02:21 We saw in the live location that the point of the live location is moving all over.
02:31 It's not the right way and it's coming near the board.
02:39 My daughter started to cry and she said, "Something's wrong, mom, there's something wrong."
02:46 So I took the phone and I called him again to tell him, "Listen, you are in the wrong way."
02:54 But the phone was ringing and Omer didn't answer.
03:01 And in live, we saw that Omer is getting into Gaza.
03:10 After it, I understand that they tried to escape from the Hamas people,
03:18 but they took them from their car and they drove them into Gaza.
03:29 I understand that you mentioned in one of your interviews that you thought initially that it was just a mistake,
03:38 that his location is already proceeding to Gaza.
03:43 Can you tell us more about it?
03:46 Yes, we didn't want to believe that it's true, so we denied it.
03:54 My husband went to Be'er Sheva to try to find him in hospitals.
04:02 He went from hospital to hospital and I was in the house trying to call everyone from his friends.
04:12 If somebody saw him, if somebody knew where he is, we thought, I thought he was maybe running to the bushes
04:22 and he's there and he cannot call us.
04:26 And I didn't imagine something else.
04:31 And then on 8pm evening, one of his friends called me.
04:43 He told me, "Shelly, I'm so sorry, but I need to send you a video."
04:51 And I think Omer is in this video.
04:55 I immediately said, "No, no, no, I don't want to see the video, please."
05:02 So he sent it to my brother and then we saw in the video that Omer is capped in his hand in a pickup truck.
05:15 Voices of Arabs are all over.
05:20 He was alive, he was looking good, he was moving.
05:27 And that was the last time we saw Omer in this video.
05:37 And that was also the last time that you were able to talk to Omer on Saturday
05:45 or it was on a Friday that you last saw him?
05:49 Last time I talked with Omer on 9am in the morning, Saturday morning,
05:57 when he was afraid and he was panicked.
06:02 This is the last time that I talked with him.
06:08 And you tried contacting him again, but you can no longer contact his line anymore.
06:13 No, his phone was ringing, but he didn't answer.
06:17 Immediately during that time, you already realized and it sank into you already that he was already taken by the Hamas.
06:26 Oh, yes, yes, immediately I understand it.
06:31 I was in pain, in sorrow.
06:38 I didn't know what to do with myself.
06:42 I was crying like, oh, it's a nightmare.
06:50 It's a nightmare.
06:53 That was the time that I got to a nightmare.
06:57 Until now, I'm in a nightmare.
07:01 I cannot sleep, I cannot eat.
07:05 I open my eyes in the morning and I'm afraid of what the day will bring.
07:14 I pray all day and night that Omer will come back home as soon as possible.
07:31 And we are very, very, you know, in a trauma, in a big, big trauma from that.
07:42 I understand in the last conversation that you had with your son, you were able to still find a location.
07:48 Right now, if you're trying to contact him, is there still any location that shows?
07:53 I'm not really adept to this.
07:58 Last time that the location of my phone son was on 9.45 a.m.
08:10 The government came to us on Monday evening and they told us that Omer was kidnapped by the Hamas.
08:20 He is in Gaza and the last time that the phone was in a location, it was inside of Gaza at 9.45 a.m.
08:35 It was the last time, yes.
08:38 You mentioned a while ago that you keep on praying for your son to come back.
08:42 Aside from prayers, how else are you coping?
08:46 So I am all over the day and nights shouting my voice to all over the world that they must understand that no mother in all over the world or father needs to feel like I feel.
09:13 Imagine that your son is going to a party, that your son is going with his friends to have fun, to be happy.
09:29 And then the day after, you don't know, murders took him from the party.
09:40 You don't know where he is. You don't know if they are beating him.
09:46 You don't know if he is eating, if he is sleeping.
09:50 You don't know nothing about him.
09:54 And it's not only my son.
09:57 There were families who were in their house, in their safe place, their house.
10:10 And people, murders came into their house and took them from their safe place.
10:18 There were babies, there were children, there were mothers, fathers, grandmothers.
10:27 Those murders take a lot of people from their house, from their festival.
10:39 And I wanted to shout it all over the world that nobody needs to feel like that.
10:47 Nobody. It's not a war.
10:50 You must understand it's not a war.
10:53 They took, war is between countries.
10:56 The terrorists went and took people from their houses and kidnapped them.
11:05 And it's, I don't know what to do.
11:20 I cannot help my son.
11:24 The most important thing for a mom is to take care of her son and to help him.
11:32 And I cannot do it to my son.
11:37 And it's so hard. It's so hard.
11:42 I can just understand the pain, considering that I understand you even celebrated your birthday last Friday.
11:51 And this is what's going to happen after?
11:55 So last Friday, not this Friday, last Friday, October 6th, I had a birthday.
12:05 And we went together, all of the family to celebrate in a breakfast.
12:13 And then we went to Jerusalem to travel.
12:17 And then we went back home.
12:20 And on the ride home, I look at the sky and I said to myself, thank you, God.
12:29 I have everything I want.
12:32 I'm happy. I'm full of joy.
12:37 And I have the lovers with me.
12:42 And the day after it, some murders kidnapped my son.
12:51 And I want to say that I have a problem with my breath and I need a medicine for that.
13:01 And I woke up in the morning and I didn't have a breath and I took my medicine.
13:07 And Omer, he had the same problem.
13:10 And to think about it, that he cannot take his medicine to breathe.
13:17 It's so hard. It's so hard.
13:21 That minimum that he needs to his health, he cannot have it.
13:30 What assurances have the authorities given you so far?
13:41 Is there something like that, that the authorities of Israel have given you, at least to comfort you?
13:48 Nothing more than I do know.
13:54 That Omer is kidnapped and they are doing the best they can to bring Omer and all the families back home.
14:07 And that's what I do.
14:09 I was meeting the prime minister.
14:13 I was meeting the president.
14:18 And it was the same thing that they will do everything to bring back everyone home safe.
14:29 And that's what I know.
14:33 How would you describe Omer? What kind of a son is he?
14:39 Omer is my sunshine.
14:41 He is the little one.
14:45 I have a 27-year-old daughter, Dana, and a 24-year-old boy, Amit.
14:54 And Omer is 21 years old.
14:57 And like sunshine, everyone wants to be near him.
15:02 He is a warm boy.
15:08 Every day, every day he comes, he kisses me three times.
15:15 One, two, three.
15:18 He looks at my eyes and he says, "Mom, I love you. Mom, I love you."
15:24 And he likes music.
15:29 Because of that, he was in this festival.
15:32 And right now he needs to be in Amsterdam in another festival.
15:39 He likes to... he is so funny.
15:44 He is a funny guy.
15:46 And he always helps everybody when he was a child.
15:54 So every time he was bringing me dogs and cats that he found.
16:01 And he said, "Please, mom, please, let's help them. Let's take them home."
16:07 And in school, where he will see a child that is alone.
16:15 So we will take him with him and he will help him.
16:26 And how much do you love him right now?
16:30 What?
16:31 How much do you miss him right now?
16:34 Oh my God, oh my God.
16:37 I'm going to his room.
16:39 He went from... when he went to the festival,
16:46 he left his room like a teenager with a lot of mess.
16:55 Clothes on the floor, you know.
16:59 And I said to myself, I will not organize his room
17:05 till he will come back and organize by himself his room.
17:10 So I'm getting inside his room every day in the morning.
17:14 And I'm talking with him.
17:16 And I'm telling him that he needs to be strong.
17:21 And that I love him.
17:23 And that I'm doing everything to bring him back home as soon as possible.
17:31 And I pray to God that he will help us.
17:35 I believe in God.
17:37 And I believe he will help us to bring Omer back home.
17:45 What is your message to all the other families in the same situation?
17:51 So I am shouting not only my shout here.
17:58 I am shouting all the families in the same situation that I have right now.
18:09 That we must be strong for the hostages.
18:17 We must be together.
18:21 And to be in power to bring them back home safely.
18:32 If there is a chance for you to talk to the Hamas,
18:35 what message do you want to tell them?
18:40 I don't need to talk to the Hamas.
18:42 I'm a mother.
18:44 This is not my job to do it.
18:48 My job is to say to all the mothers in the world
18:55 that no mother needs to feel like I feel.
19:02 This is my thing to say.
19:06 Imagine, I don't know if you have a son or daughter
19:12 or sister or brother.
19:15 And imagine that he went to a party
19:21 and murders took him and kidnapped them.
19:27 Just try to imagine it.
19:31 And that's it.
19:35 Shelly, thank you so much.
19:38 You mentioned to us a while ago that you are shouting this message.
19:42 Don't worry, we will echo your message to the Philippines.
19:47 And of course, I'm not yet a mother,
19:50 but I'm teary-eyed with your story.
19:53 And you'll be part of our prayers, of course.
19:56 Thank you very much.
19:58 Thank you very much.
20:00 And of course, Israel, the whole country,
20:04 and all those who are left victims of this war,
20:08 you are in our prayers and you will continue to be in our prayers.
20:11 Rest assured of that.
20:13 Thank you so much.
20:14 Thank you very much.
20:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]