The Dispatch Podcast - War In Israel: Hamas Took Her Sister

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Adva's sister, Tamar, was at the Nova music festival in southern Israel. Tamar is still missing after the 7/10 massacre. Adva generously spoke to The Dispatch about her efforts to get more information, the shock, and life after the horror. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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But I wanted to also include the occasional personal story given the magnitude of this event. Today, the story is Adva's sister, Tamar, was in the Nova Music Festival, was one of the almost 300 Israelis abducted and never made it back home. Beyond the challenge of truly absorbing all this horror, deciding who to put on air is its own journalistic challenge. which we're still negotiating here at the dispatch. But as I said, as this war moves forward, I would hope to get more voices from the ground

to share their immediate experience of what's going there. Advice still waiting for news or any kind of confirmation regarding the state of her sister. But in the meantime, she's been willing to share her story. I spoke to her on Tuesday, which is October 17th, and this is the raw conversation that we've had. live in Israel in a small village. I'm 38 years old. I have two children, seven years old and four years old. And I'm a doctor. I'm a resident, an orthopedic surgeon. I was supposed to do my final exams

like the board in November but now it's cancelled for now because of what happening in Israel that's me I work at the hospital and I think

almost eight years or or more, I volunteer in search and rescue. I've been in Nepal in the earthquake. My husband is volunteering as well. He's been in Brazil, and he actually was in the state for training with the army, with the American army. And we dedicate our love to help people and to rescue. all the people in the world

whenever there is any disaster, us or some of our friends are going in Turkey in Japan, in Brazil, in Mexico, in United States when you had

the building that collapsed I think. In Florida? Yeah. And Philippines and Nepal. And now, I think that now I need to rescue my family here in Israel. I'm the sister of Tamar Gutman.

She's missing since Saturday morning. Tamar is 27 years old. She's my little sister. We're a fourth sister. She's the third. she went to a music festival with her childhood friends who was from high school

she was so glad that they finally succeed to go together all her friends all the best friends and she actually haven't been in festivals and party a lot

because she had a crown disease and she had a lot of hospitalizations the last seven years. And she was so happy to go and party with her friend. And in Saturday morning, we woke up to missile alarms and we went to the safe room. I knew that Tamar was at the festival. It's an open field near Barry, so I know it's a problem. I immediately...

Do you live in the area? No, not so far. I think it's 40 minutes from Barry, but I live in center of Israel. But the missile alarm was everywhere in Tel Aviv in my small village that we usually don't have alarms because nobody, there isn't any, a lot of people here. so they are not targeting us, usually. But we sat, I think, for half an hour or more during the alarm, the missiles just went going and going and going, and it didn't stop.

And I sent Tamar what's up and ask her, what's going on with you? Are you coming home? Are you okay? And she said, yes, I'm okay. I'm at the festival, but I cannot go home because They told us that on the road there is a terrorist that are offended one of the guards. I told her, Tamar, please see where you are, open a map.

If they will come forward you, you have to know where you're going. Don't be near other people. She said, no, everything is okay. Don't you worry. Ask me about my children, if they're okay. because of the alarms. Oh, this is in text? Yes.

I said, please, Amar, you need to watch where you are. You need to be prepared. She said me, okay, okay, and I will let you know when we are coming home. That was her last message. It was 7.30. And since then, we haven't heard from her again. Later on, we got her phone, so I know that she was trying to send a message.

she's coming home at 7.51, but the internet didn't work there. I don't know why we didn't get it. They recovered the phone from the site of the festival? When she stopped answering and we started hearing on the news that there's terrorists in the villages, I started worried, so I just called my father and asked him if he has tomorrow key to her apartment because I wanted to get access to a computer and iPad so I can track her phone. And when I opened the iPad, I saw that her location haven't changed since eight. 8, 10 a.m., so a little bit after we talked, after she tried to send a message. It was near the road that now we know that was a terrible terror attack then.

They came from all directions and with drones, and they burned people alive there in their cars. and they killed a lot of people and kidnapped a lot of people so we don't know what happened to her two of friends were we know that they are dead one of them

called his parents at 10 a.m. and told him that he's alone he don't know where the rest of the friends they split and he's afraid he was hiding in a big garbage can and the other one we don't know

what happened to him and if he was with Tamar. At that day, I went, you know, when she didn't answer and I saw the phone doesn't move and, you know, I called my colleagues in Sorokka Hospital and other hospital in the south to see if they know if Tamar came to their hospital and they all tried to help and said that they don't see her and she's not on the computers. I just couldn't sit in place and I just went to Soroka

and started asking the wounded if they saw her and if anybody saw her and nobody saw her. Some people said that they saw her in the party but later on when the attack happened, they didn't. And we know that

there is more people that are hostage that we don't know who they are in the estimate i don't know how much is the estimations but it's not uh we know that there are people that we don't know who they are and they are under hamas capture i'm an orthopedic surgeon and i see a lot of traumas patient and they see people that died in a car accident and sometimes shooting, you know, and I see, and I am exposed to a lot of things that usually, that regular people are not and are very hard for them to see. and a lot of my friends now was helping

and still helping evacuating the the dads from the villages and from the party and they told me what they saw they were so shocked and I'm I'm talking about people that used to

too hard sites they were so shocked some of them are traumatized and it for me even listened

to what they described was so hard they talked about things that they did to people and to women and

there was they took their internal organs and dissected parts of their bodies and decapitate. And I think that, you know, I think that ISIS, what we saw, that ISIS did was nice comparing to what happened right now in Israel. And I, it's unbelievable and I don't really, I, it's, you know, they don't release a photograph of that because I don't think the families can, can bear to see those photographs. So they don't release it to the press.

Do you think they should? I think if they will, it will help. the world understanding what happened here and our pain and maybe to support us and maybe to understand at least that Hamas is a terrible, terrible organization that have to be eliminated from the world. But I cannot say because when I think about a mother or a husband, and the need to see his wife is slaughtered. And, you know, when you put some picture on media, it will always be there.

They will always have to live with that picture. I don't know. I don't know what is the right thing to do for, I don't know. Have you heard from the Israeli government? Yes. We heard from the police and from the army. They're still searching. I actually got a phone call today that they still don't have anything new about tomorrow.

That's for the searching. I actually was in a meeting with Prime Minister, Beniamen Tanyaou. And after that, I was in a meeting with, in a meeting with Benny guns and I heard them and I heard

that the government is doing their efforts to bring them back but you know it's a terror organization so already a lot of time already 11 days it's too much

and I my sister she has I told you I think he told you she had a crown disease so It's very problematic for her. She needs medical care. She needs her medications. We're very worried about her health.

I actually was in a meeting with the ICRC. It's a Red Cross organization that handles these situations. And I had a two-minute meeting with them. We talked about the problems because we're talking about civilians, children, babies, elderly, people like my sister with chronic disease that need their medical attention, that need diapers and formula and someone to take care of them

and need their anticoagulation therapy. And without them, some of them can die easily. You know, a person after a stroke without this, Antiquagulation therapy. It's a ticking bomb and diabetic people and so many problems. You've been in touch with some of the other families? Yeah. This is my strength.

We talk a lot. I'm in touch with Tamara's friends family all the time. We become one family. They become my family as well. And I meet every day a lot of people that lost their family members, the family members, and people that have family members in the capture of the Hamas. Just today I talked to a woman that her grandmother that I think is 85 years old, and she's in the capture of the Hamas.

and she have another cousin that were taken. And parents and brothers and sisters and children that don't know where are their parents. Yeah, we become one, we support each other right now. We meet everyday families that are waiting for answers or waiting for bringing their loved ones home. Not long ago, I saw someone go through a sudden loss, and it was a stark reminder of how quickly life can change and why protecting the people you love is so important.

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help Israel right now because I don't think it's a problem of Israel. I think that Hamas is a organization that and and sorry that represent everything that bad in this world

and if we let them keep on doing what they're doing it will spread in the world so that's what I'm doing I'm meeting ambassadors and meeting the Red Cross and talking to

the media and meeting politicians in our sides and meeting families. And that's what I'm doing all day besides being with my children that right now is at home. And I hear all the bombing and the alarms and need to deal with the knowledge

that their aunt, their beloved aunt is missing and they know and they understand. understand that what happens and my parents that are broken and what's their child to come back. When did your parents learn about it? My father was at home when it happened and I talked to him early in the morning when she stopped answering. My mother, so we learned about it quickly. My mother was at Cyprus for a sport event and she learned about it later on the day, I think one or two p.m. And I have two other sisters. One was in Boston. to tell her because I needed the key for my sister apartment.

So she was, she knew very quickly. And another sister that was in Sinai that came. And I think she learned about it at noon that day as well. So everybody knew about it somewhere on Saturday. Do you think about the operation in Gaza and how it kind of the situation for the hostages? Yeah, of course, we always, we think about it. We're scared, but Israel right now is under attack.

We right now under a missile attack all day long. I think that, you know, right now, I don't know if we have other choice. I don't know if we have other choice right now. And, you know, today when we heard about the news of the hospital in Gaza, yesterday we had the Hamas release a hostage video that she had a surgery in the hospital. And probably there is a lot of other Israelis there being captured. So, I'm, you know, I know that the attack of the can harm the hostages, even though this, this attack was a jihad attack, but I know that the Israelis try not to, I don't know what their intelligence, no, you know, they don't share it with me, but I hope.

they're keeping them safe as they can, as far as they can. And, you know, I was very, very angry yesterday when I saw the video at the hospital because then I knew that doctors who swear to save life was helping the Hamas. I hope they are helping Hamas just because they have to and not because. they want to because I can't believe that someone who swore to save lives will do that. So there is a lot of thoughts these days. You don't know what is good and what is right and what is wrong. I know what Hamas did was not wrong, was horrifying and monstery.

But, you know, now when the Israelis are defending our borders and our country and ours and the civilians that were in the Gaza Strip and I don't know what they should do and what they shouldn't. I don't know why they do what they do, because they don't have the intelligence they have. So I cannot judge. I know that maybe we can judge some of the actions later on, but right now I really don't know what is right. Do you feel like you can trust the Israeli government right now? It's a complicated question. And I think that our government will need to answer a lot of questions in the future about what happened here because I think we failed defending our border and our citizens.

But right now I don't have a choice to trust them. And I know that I trust the army because I know that the Israeli army is one of the most humanic army in the world. And I know that bringing back the hostages is one of the main targets of the army. And so I trust them to do right and to try to save the hostages. and the peaceful civilians in Gaza as much as they can because, you know, when you fight a terror organization, it's very hard. I know I know that probably some of the hostages will get hurt in those. those fighting as well as civilians and civilians in Gaza.

I know that and I'm so sorry for that. And I hope it will be, I hope, I hope that we could keep the civilians and the hostages life as much as we can and still finish this, this matter and bringing the hostages back to Israel and stop the Hamas

from terrorizing the Gaza Strip and the Israeli civilians in our side. Is there something you want to say? As I said, the main thing that I want to say

to the world is please be firm about your opinion be firm about this is not acceptable what happened in Israel on Saturday

last week was not acceptable slaughter, raping and decapitate killing children and and elderlies and women and pregnant women and husband is not acceptable.

And taking hostages is not acceptable. It's against the Geneva law. And please help us finish this matter and help us fighting Hamas and bring peace to our area, please. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.