About Omri, his family and the abduction

 

Omri Miran and Lishay Lavi met in March 2020; their love bloomed when the world froze amid a global pandemic. Within three years, they built a home in Nahal Oz, married and gave birth to two daughters: Roni, who is 2 and a half years old, and Alma, now 10 months old.

 

Omri worked as a shiatsu massage therapist and a gardener in the kibbutz; Lishay led educational programs that aimed to integrate Muslim Bedouin-Israeli students into Sapir College, the higher-education flagship of the northwestern Negev region within the Gaza envelope.

 

Spiritual lovers of nature and mankind, they were optimistic about their future together until the sun rose on Oct. 7, a sunrise that shone on the deadliest morning in the history of the state of Israel. Omri is an avid reader, a supporter of Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball and Liverpool in football.

 

On October 7th the family awoke to sirens and warnings that Hamas militants had crossed the border. At around 8 am they heard gunfire and they went to their safe room for protection. While there their phones ran out of charge so they were cut off from the outside world and at about 10:30 the terrorists entered their home and shouted at them to open the door to the safe room.

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Then they heard the voice of one of their neighbours, Tomer, a 17 year old lad begging them to open the door, otherwise he and they would all be shot. They opened the door, and they were taken to another the house of another neighbour, Tsachi, where they were all held captive there for a while, while some of the terrorists used Tomer to persuade other residents to surrender.

 

The neighbours daughter Maayan who had celebrated her 18th birthday the day before had been killed when the terrorists stormed their safe room. Two additional women were brought into the home, before, Omri, Tsachi, and the 2 women, were taken in his car and into Gaza.

 

Eventually, the IDF arrived and the remaining terrorists were killed, and after hours of believing they were about to die or taken away, Lishay, Roni ,Alma and the remnants of Tsachi’s family were freed.

 

It was later discovered that Tomer, and his entire family were murdered, together with many of the others who had helped persuade to surrender.

 

Several of the hostages freed in November reported they had seen Omri in captivity and one even managed to tell him that his family was safe – they had overheard Lishay being interviewed on an Israeli radio broadcast while being hel

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Nothing had been heard from Omri from November until Hamas issued a video of him  at Pesach

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