CHILLING: "We Are Children, Both of Our Parents Just Died" - Idan Family Re

Three years after the October 7 massacre, the Idan family has released the recording of the call two of their children made to police from Kibbutz Kfar Aza minutes after Hamas terrorists murdered their parents. It opens with a nine-year-old explaining who is on the line: "We are children, both of our parents just died."

Michael Idan, then 9, and his sister Amalia, then 6, made the call at around 7 a.m. from the safe room of their home. It was among the first calls the police received about the murder of residents near the Gaza border.

The dispatcher asked when it had happened. Now, Michael answered, and said they were in Kfar Aza. In an account of the call aired earlier by Channel 13, the dispatcher, still unaware of what was unfolding in the south, asked whether the children were harassing the police and lying. Michael told her they were not.

Amalia then added that their sister might have died with their father too. The dispatcher told the children to stay inside the house and not to go out.

Their parents were Roee and Smadar Idan. Roee, a photographer for Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, managed to send a photo of terrorists paragliding into the kibbutz. He reached the safe room to find Smadar dead, picked up three-year-old Avigail and ran outside with the other two children. A terrorist dressed in an IDF uniform shot him on the path to the house while Avigail was still in his arms.

Michael and Amalia ran back inside. They hid for about 14 hours in a closet in the safe room, kept on the phone by a Magen David Adom dispatcher who told Michael to lock the door and let no one in. Soldiers reached the house that evening, and their uncle Amit told them to call out his name so the children would know it was safe to come out.

Avigail was not dead. She had run to the home of the neighbors, the Brodutch family, and was abducted to Gaza with them. She was released on November 26, 2023, after 50 days in captivity. Avigail, who also holds American citizenship, was three when she was taken and four when she came home.

The recording was first broadcast by Channel 13 in October 2024 with the family's approval. It was made public again on Saturday night through the October Council, which represents bereaved families of the massacre.

The three siblings are being raised by their aunt, Liron Mor, and her husband, Zoli, together with the couple's own children.