Israeli relatives found dead
Adira Werdiger had made a plea to Australian Jews, as she kept in constant contact with Israel since the harrowing news that Adi Kaploun had been taken by Hamas.
A MELBOURNE woman who kept a brave vigil for a family member in Israel abducted by Hamas is grieving after news that the young Israeli mother was murdered.
“I ask you all to pray,” was Adira Werdiger’s earlier plea to Australian Jews, as she kept in constant contact with Israel since the harrowing news that Adi Kaploun had been taken by Hamas.
After dawn on Saturday, Adi – daughter-in-law of Adira’s Melbourne-born cousin Yonadav Kaploun – was violently abducted.
Adi and her two children were among hundreds of people dragged from their homes at Kibbutz Holit and other villages near the Gaza border after terrorists invaded.
Hamas gunmen pounced on the Kaplouns’ home while other family members were away in nearby towns trying to defend people from the terrorists.
After breaching the kibbutz fencing, at least 50 Hamas vehicles with four or five armed terrorists in each vehicle smashed into homes. Gunmen shot dead Tehilla, a young woman who was soon to marry Yonadav’s youngest son Ahuvia.
Adi barricaded herself and her children in a shelter in their home but a grenade hurled into their lounge room blew open the front door.
Adi and her boys, three-year-old Negev and four-month-old Eshel, were taken at gunpoint to be marched across the border to Gaza, along with a neighbour Avital Aladjem.
Avital had been hiding in a wardrobe with another neighbour, Chaim, who was shot dead before she was captured. Negev was shot in the leg.
Shortly before reaching the border, the terrorists released Avital, and also Adi’s children, without explanation. But there was no news of Adi’s release and the family initially believed she had been taken into Gaza. Avital managed to take the children back to a nearby town and phoned their father, Anani.
Speaking to CNN earlier, Avital said of her friend Adi, “She’s brave and she has such a good heart. She wouldn’t hurt a soul. She’s always smiling and always giving. She’s so kind and gentle and such a good mother.”
The children have been reunited with their father and have been given medical attention in Jerusalem.
The family’s worst fears were confirmed on Tuesday (Israel time) with the discovery that Adi had been found murdered. Yonadav, who lives in Israel, is now mourning for Adi and Tehilla.
Born in Melbourne, the award-winning writer and bible teacher was raised in a religious family and made aliyah as a child. He is being looked after by family in his grief.
Contacted by The AJN, Adira, a well known volunteer in several Melbourne Jewish organisations, said, “Like everyone, I’m horrified and distraught.”
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