Kristina hadn’t seen her children since December when she took them to see their father.
In the two months since - she has had no contact with them.
Kristina is in Israel. The children are deep in the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authorities, with her husband’s family lives.
But this is not your regular kidnapping saga. It involves several countries, borders, and even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kristina and Mohammed were together for 12 years and have two children, Saeed, 10, and Darina, 7. They had been living together in the West Bank city of Ramallah, but the marriage was no fairytale.
Kristina said she was a slave in her husband's house, forbidden to leave and suffering from his violent behavior.
“After work, he came home tired and yelled at the kids to shut up. He told them he was tired, he wanted to sleep. He told me to force them to be silent,” Kristina says. “When I tried to explain to him that it's natural for children, he would beat me in front of them."
“Sometimes Saeed would tell me he had hidden the knives before Mohammed came home. He saw my husband putting a knife to my throat several times.”
Mohammed’s violence toward Kristina spread to the children.
“My daughter was so traumatized, she would sit on my lap crying, begging him to stop beating me. So he took her by her neck, raised her high up, and shook her.”
Kristina began to worry for their safety in light of her husband's violent behavior. “He became very unstable," she said. "He started taking antidepressants. He lost his temper often. He blamed us. He started beating me. The children saw it all, and they cried. He threatened to kill us all,” she said.
Eventually, Kristina knew it was time to flee. She asked if she and the children could return to Russia but Mohammed refused. “He threatened to cut us into pieces and send us to Russia in coffins if we dared to leave him.”
But she did manage to escape to Israel with her children and luckily found refuge in a battered women's shelter in Tel Aviv. Saeed and Darina were even enrolled in school and their lives finally became like those of regular children.
Kristina is not Israeli. She is a Russian citizen, and her children are Palestinian. Mohammed filed a suit in an Israeli court and was allowed supervised visits. After being on his best behavior, he was granted four hours alone and unsupervised with the children and then return them to their mother, But he had other plans.
“I tried calling several times. My son didn't answer. I had a feeling something was wrong. I came to pick them up 20-30 minutes earlier than planned. An hour had passed. He didn't bring them. I realized he would never bring them back,” she said.
Kristina turned to the police but they do not have the authority to operate in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and that was what Mohammed was counting on.
“They managed to track my husband's phone – it was already in the Palestinian territory, in Salfit. His sister lives there. I knew he took my children back to his place.”
So what happens next?
Kristina is not an Israeli citizen, so she has no rights in this country. Her children aren't even Russian, so the Russian embassy can't help. The Israeli police can't go into Ramallah, since they have no jurisdiction there. So it seems she can only hope Mohammed will have a change of heart and bring the kids back.
Only, he won't. Kristina did receive a video of her children. She was shocked by the stark contrast between their life there and the one they were forced to abandon in Israel.
“I'm so afraid for them. After I saw the videos of them there – how Darina is alone on the road, how she plays in the dirt, in the cold. She used to be such a happy child. This isn't Darina.”
Kristina told i24NEWS that no one is watching the kids. " They play on the streets with fire. They're forced to watch animals being slaughtered to get used to the sight of blood. And the village's regular activity on Friday is to go to and throw stones at the Israeli checkpoint.”
“I'm so afraid for my children,” Kristina says. “I don't know what can happen to them the next day or even the next second. I was always protecting my children - even when he was beating me. Who is going to protect them now? They are all alone. There's no one to protect them there. They're so little.”
Kristina doesn’t know anyone in the Palestinian territories who can help her get her children back. And the worry keeps gnawing at her.
“I'm so afraid for them. Every day I'm scared he will hurt them. They suffer there, I know. There's no one to protect them. They're so little, so helpless. They need to be brought back as soon as possible. Who knows how it could end for them?”
After being approached by i24NEWS, the Israel Police issued a statement: "Upon receiving the complaint, the police opened an investigation and used all the means at its disposal, both operational and investigative to reach a desired conclusion."
Christina has also submitted a request to the Human Trafficking Unit of the Israeli Police to be recognized as a refugee held under conditions of slavery. No decision has yet been made.