Batsheva Ilouz’s son Ilya has been missing since the early hours of Hamas’ attack on Shabbat (Saturday) morning. She spoke with Israel National News following the press conference at which many of the family members of missing people begged the government to provide them with information, no matter how partial.
“It’s so, so hard for all of us,” she told INN, “even though on the one hand, it makes it a little bit easier to know that there are so many others in the same situation, and that we’re united in this, and maybe this will itself bring about some kind of change, and an official representative will approach us with information and we’ll get answers. Up until now, we haven’t been given anything and we’ve been scrambling just for any piece of information we can find.”
“We don’t have anyone to turn to,” she added. “There’s no one giving us assistance or information—everyone just pushes us off to someone else.”
Ilouz related that, “At half-past-nine on [Shabbat] morning, we lost contact with our son and we heard volleys of gunfire from very close by. There’s no worse nightmare for a parent than to hear your child in distress when you can’t reach them, and to feel utterly helpless and unable to find out what’s going on. It’s a living nightmare; there’s no other way to describe it.”
She added that she has received a huge amount of support from Jews across the country and that her appeal for assistance is directed at the government, which should be providing the relatives of those missing with whatever information they have on their whereabouts and welfare. “I’ve gotten so many messages of support and encouragement, and I have no doubt that every parent’s heart goes out to me and to others in my situation.
“I’m now appealing to our government, that they should do everything they can to make this end as soon as possible, and to get us information. We’re totally broken. This is literally torture.”