Eden Yerushalmi was taken from the Nova music festival when Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, and her body was among six recovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) late last month. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for us. We feel like we\u2019re in a nightmare,\u201d Shani Yerushalmi said. \u201cSometimes it feels like it isn\u2019t real, like it\u2019s not happening to us, because the whole time we truly believed that Eden would come back home alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yerushalmi\u2019s family have learned details of her captivity from the IDF since her body was returned to Israel from Gaza. Describing the tunnel in which she was kept for several weeks, Shani said: \u201cThey barely could stand fully \u2026 they couldn\u2019t sleep next to each other, only in a line. There were no windows, no air, no light. Barely food, and if they needed to go to the bathroom they were forced to do it in a bucket.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yerushalmi\u2019s death, along with five other Israeli captives, ignited fresh rage in the country, much of it directed at the handling of the crisis by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government. <\/p>\n
More than 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage on October 7, according to Israeli authorities, and more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel\u2019s ensuing war began. Netanyahu has been under intense pressure to reach a ceasefire-for-hostages deal that would secure the return of more than 100 people still held in the enclave. <\/p>\n
The 23-year-old from Tel Aviv was a pilates instructor and working as a bartender at the Nova music festival on October 7. When sirens sounded, Yerushalmi sent a video of rocket fire to her family group chat, saying she was leaving the festival, according to the Hostages Families Forum. <\/p>\n
For four hours, she spoke with her two sisters, May and Shani, who heard everything she went through as she tried to escape. Her last words were: \u201cThey\u2019ve caught me.\u201d <\/p>\n
The sisters described Yerushalmi as a friendly and warm person, with May saying: \u201cThe most important thing is that she was a hero, and she survived 11 months in those tunnels.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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