Photographer Roi Idan, 42, went missing after leaving his kibbutz in Kfar Aza – around three miles from Gaza in southern Israel – to photograph the Hamas attack on October 7, journalist Ilana Curiel told The U.S. Sun.
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Ilana, who worked with Roi at Ynet, an English-language Israeli news provider, texted him telling him to take care of himself and his three children Avigail, 3, Amalia, 6, and Michael, 9, as she rushed to the scene of a terror attack in nearby Ofakim.
He never replied.
Worried Ilana began hearing reports that Roi’s wife had been killed at their home and little Avigail had been kidnapped – while his other two children were hidden, barricaded in the closet.
She drove back through heavy shelling and fighting along a road she described as the “gates of hell” to save the two children and drive them to safety.
But on Tuesday, she got the news she had been dreading: Roi’s body had been found, and he was confirmed dead.
“We worked together for over ten years, through all of the numerous operations Israel has had,” Ilana, who also works at the English-language Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said.
“And this time, he went out to take pictures of the invasion and he managed to take one last picture of the Hamas terrorists skydiving into that kibbutz.
“I was able to send him a WhatsApp to keep safe and he just didn’t reply.
“We knew that something happened. I rushed to my district, to the city of Ofakim, where there was also a terror attack and about 30 people were killed. And as the hours passed and there was no sign of him, I texted him that I loved him very much but he didn’t receive the message.
“I got word that his wife was probably killed and that his two children were barricading themselves inside of his safe room. He had another child, a small child, Avigail, who had been abducted to Gaza.
“I wasn’t quite sure if the children were alive or dead. And these are kids who, every weekend in the summer, we spend time together at the pool having fun. We are really close.
“I decided to rush over there, hoping that at least two of his kids were alive.”
Ilana, who had been reporting from a local hospital where 80 wounded people had been taken, started driving over to Kfar Aza, where Roi lived.
“I rushed and got through a blockade and then another blockade. And on the other end, his brother managed to reach a special IDF commando unit who were patrolling,” she said.
“No one really understood what was going on, because it was chaos.
“I also tried to get word that there were these two kids that are barricaded. I also didn’t understand the scale of the carnage.
‘PATHWAY TO HELL’
“There’s a petrol station right outside of Gaza, and I rushed over there because you couldn’t really get into the kibbutz. I could hear the fighting and going over there, the road was full of fires where the shells hit the road. It looked like a pathway to hell.
“In the end, two special commando IDF soldiers handed me Roi’s two kids. They managed to get to them even though the fighting was still going on.”
Ilana was able to drive the children to safety and they are being looked after by family members – but remain traumatized by the horrific ordeal.
“The two kids saw everything and were barricaded with their mother’s body for over ten hours,” Ilana said.
“And when I got to them, Amalia was also covered with blood spatters. The terrorists must have not noticed her when they shot her mother. They were hiding for so many hours.”
CHILDREN COVERED IN BLOOD
“Sadly, there is no news about Avigail. She was last seen by his neighbor Avihai, who is also a friend.
“He said Avigail was covered with blood while Roi apparently held her. And I guess he tried to shield her as she rushed over to the neighbor and took shelter over there.
“But the neighbor Avihai, he went out to fight and was wounded. And Hamas terrorists took his wife and their three children and Avigail. Avihai is currently recovering and trying to fight to get his family back.
“We’re really hopeful and praying that Avigail and all the other hostages are OK and will return.”
“When you get there, this smell of death just hits you.”Ilana Curiel, US journalist in Israel
Ilana said she visited Roi’s home accompanied by two special IDF commandos three days after the attack.
“I can’t even begin to describe the scale again. It’s carnage. It’s a massacre,” she said.
“When you get there, this smell of death just hits you.
“These kibbutz were pieces of paradise, these green, beautiful villages, and almost all of them were pounded to dirt. And it was heartbreaking to see.”
‘TALENTED AND BRAVE’
Paying tribute to her “talented” colleague and friend Roi, she said: “He loved to work every operation. I remember working one operation with him even as shells were hitting and then afterwards we went to watch the Eurovision in Gaza.
“He was such a dedicated cameraman and his photographs won several awards. He never said no when asked to go on a mission.
“He returned recently from the earthquake in Turkey, and he kept telling me about the terrible smell of death that he experienced over there.
“It is kind of ironic because those smells he described to me about the natural disaster in Turkey, it’s exactly the same smells that were coming from the kibbutz, only it wasn’t a natural disaster here, it was an intentional acts of barbarism and hatred towards other human beings.”
‘LIKE AN APOCALYPSE MOVIE’
Despite the huge shock and loss she has experienced over the past few days, Ilana says she will continue to work to give her a sense of purpose.
She said: “My editor and everyone at Ynet have been so supportive, asking me to take a break, take a breather, but I can’t. I have to talk to someone else and hear another story. And another. And then another.
“In the first couple of days, everyone was in absolute shock. It was almost unrealistic. It’s like being caught in a movie or a nightmare apocalypse movie.
“But now, after the dust has settled, everyone is looking forward to continuing the battle against Hamas. They know that if they are ever to return to their kibbutz, the IDF has to annihilate direct Hamas, otherwise they won’t be able to rebuild anything, they will always be a threat.
“And not only that, everyone wants all the hostages that were taken to come back. I know Israelis will not stand for any harm to come to them.”
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the attacks by Hamas militants who crossed from Gaza and stormed border communities.
This week, US President Joe Biden flew to Israel to advocate for humanitarian assistance to begin flowing into Gaza from Egypt.
His visit came after Hamas claimed on Tuesday that 500 people had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza.
Israeli military forces later released evidence including drone footage and audio from a wiretapped phone call which it claims proves a terrorist group caused the explosion.
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