TEL AVIV, Israel – On October 7th last year, Hamas took scores of hostages, including Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs and foreign workers. Among them, members of one heroic family also suffered that tragic day.
Bashir Alzayadni, a Bedouin Arab and a law student, saw his life turned upside down by the events last fall.
"I'm the spokesman of my family here in Tel Aviv in the family's headquarters, the families Forum of the Hostages," he explained. "I had four family members kidnapped on the 7th of October and held as hostages as well."
Bashir's uncle, Yosef, and three of his children were working at the dairy in Kibbutzz Holit when Hamas attacked.
"At seven and a half in the morning, they were captured," Bashir recalled. "We saw photos, videos of them being held by Hamas. Very hard images, very hard footage."
Hamas released one son, Bilal, and a daughter Aisha after nearly two months because they were both under 18.
"They told us that they had almost no food. They told us that they have been staying deep down in the tunnels. They told us that although the guards of Hamas spoke Arabic and they speak also Arabic, they've never shared a word together. They never spoke together. All four of them were staying in the same room. And their guards gave four of them, each one, a Quran book, which is the Islamic, holy book. It was very hard for them to stay in captivity. when Yosef and his son Hamah remain(ed) captive," Bashir told CBN News.
"The father, who's 53 years old, who is still held as hostage in Gaza, has diabetes and we know that he doesn't take his medications. Hamzah Alzayadni is 22 years old, also still held as captive in Gaza by Hamas. He has migraines and he also doesn't take his medication," Bashir stated.
Unfortunatley, the tragic impact doesn't end there.
"I have a cousin of mine whose name is Abed Al Rahman," Bashir told CBN News. "He was murdered on the 7th of October by Hamas, was murdered alongside his wife, who happened to be a Jew. They believed in coexistence and they could coexisted together. They just fell in love and got married. They were just having fun in Zikim Beach. They stayed the night there and we woke up with the with a very sad message of them."
Bashir, who lived in Sderot near the Gaza Strip, wasn't there that day.
"Luckily, I went to my mother's place the weekend it happened,. I was in Rahat on the 7th of October. Now I’m in Tel Aviv because I have been evacuated from (the) Gaza envelope to the center of Israel," he said.
Another relative became a hero.
Yosef Alzayadni told CBN News, "I'm an Arab, Bedouin. I'm proud to be Israeli. I personally saved the lives of 30 people on that Black Sabbath."
Yosef, a bus driver, provided transportation at the site of the Nova Music Festival. He told us he had dropped off passengers there earlier and planned to pick them up the afternoon of October 7th.
"Around 6:00 a.m., the phone rang," he related. "I saw on the phone the name Amit Adar, the guy that had ordered the transport. He said, ‘Yosef, save us!’ I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘There's a mess – alarms, rockets. There are terrorists.’ I didn't think twice. I started my car and drove there."
As he drove, Yosef knew something was wrong.
"I have young people there (at the festival) and I need to reach them. Either I'll die or I'll get there and rescue them" he was thinking.
Despite rockets, gunfire and terrorists, he successfully rescued 30 people, packing them into his 14-seat bus.
All the young people that I brought back, thanks to God, they returned whole. No one was murdered, no one was kidnapped," Yosef said.
Later, Hamas found Yosef's phone number on Facebook, then called and threatened him.
"For me, we are all human beings," he declared. "There are good and there are bad people. And I did this thing as a person, a human being. In the end, we are one people, and this is our country. And we must live together."
In Bashir's view, "This is a miracle that he went there and got out without any damage."
Bashir saw the reaction of Israelis following the attack and it truly surprised him.
"We saw people in Israel, from all parts of Israeli society, come together, stand together, and fight together and help each other. It doesn't matter if they were Jews, Arabs, Christians, Druze, Muslims, liberals, or Orthodox Jews. You saw all Israelis come together and behave like one, big society that just lifted one another." he shared.
Bashir has never viewed Hamas as representing Muslims or Palestinians. To him, it is a radical terrorist organization. That's one reason Bashir believes there is still hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We should find the common things we cherish, and we should find a focus on them, and we should find a way to heal our wounds, and also, fight for a better future for both of us, Israelis and Palestinians. What happened on the 7th of October should never happen again. And what is happening right now in Gaza should also never happen again," he asserted.
This Bedouin wants people to pray for the war and violence to end and for peace in the world.
Originally from Webpage "CBN News"
CCD edited and reprinted with permission
