A day after 18-year old Mika Engel and 11-year-old Yuval Engel were released from Hamas captivity along with their mother, Karina, 51, their uncle Danny Engel on Tuesday spoke about meeting with his relatives who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and returned to Israel after 52 days.
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"Overall, I think they are fine," said the uncle whose brother Ronen, 55, remains in Gaza. "When they arrived, there was a lot of laughter and humor combined with crying and excitement. The girls are strong and they have a lioness mother who will know how to keep taking care of them properly."
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MIka holds the hand of her sister, Yuval, who was placed in a wheelchair as she was released by Hamas
Karina Engel-Bart recovered two years ago from cancer. On the day of the massacre on October 7, the four family members were at home in the kibbutz. They entered the secure room when the launches began toward the surrounding communities, and at approximately 9:00 a.m. Karina told her friend that Ronen was not at home. The friend heard that there were people inside the family's house, and at some point the conversation with Karina was cut off. Then Hamas terrorists accessed Ronen's phone and uploaded to the Facebook page a video showing the terror attack at the border fence. Later, the four Engels were kidnapped to Gaza.
On Monday, after the three of them were freed from Hamas captivity, Yuval was filmed being transported in a wheelchair to a Red Cross vehicle. "They got a little injured, I don't know at what stage," said Uncle Danny. "I think the wheelchair part was more logistical for transporting them. She's now standing on her feet, she's walking and she's fine. Now we have to be here for them and embrace them up."
Danny said that his brother Ronen was not held in Gaza with his wife and the girls.
"That morning Ronen had a weapon and we know he went out to fight, and from the moment he left no one saw him. Even when I was in the kibbutz and tried to question anyone who was there, no one said who saw him that day. We don't know what happened to Ronen, and there's no sign of him and that's the deal now. We're trying to gather every shred of information about Ronen, it might be that Karina and the girls can tell us something later," he said.
Despite the difficulty of the mother and the returning daughters, their uncle said that "Mika the champ said to us the first thing when we saw her, 'Look how thin I got without doing sports.' They take care of their hair and all kinds of other things. This extremism is crazy compared to where they were and where they are now."