After a few horrifying days, on Tuesday, singer Shay-Li Atari received the most terrible news of all: her husband, Yahav Wiener, was murdered during the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza. On Wednesday morning she begged officials to speed up the identification procedure so that she could retrieve sperm and preserve the possibility of giving siblings to their one-month-old daughter. But the procedure was unsuccessful because his body had been exposed to the elements for too long, the public learned on Wednesday evening.
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"Let me identify my husband's body from which I can retrieve sperm," Atari has said earlier on Wednesday. "I'm begging, that's his wish. He sacrificed his life and all he wanted was for us to have children. I want hope that I'll have a family, that we'll have the three children with bare behinds running in the grass. There are a lot of people and ambulances who volunteered. I just need them to identify the body!"
She announced on Wednesday evening that: "Unfortunately, because the body of my beloved, my dear, my husband, waited for too many hours in the heat, the sperm that was extracted is no longer usable," said Atari, adding that this is "a result of the many failures of the State of Israel, which we have not even finished quantifying yet."
"My Yahav's dream, of a big family, laughing and rejoicing together, playing on the lawns of our magical Kfar Aza (which was and is no longer), I will no longer be able to fulfill. Our country abandoned his body and we had to go through seven levels of hell to find out that we had not succeeded. There are countless lessons to learn and take from this, because we (and many other families) should not have discovered that there is no proper infrastructure or basis for assistance from the state, to say the least," she said.
The singer thanked everyone who supported her in the fight for the quick identification of Wiener.
"In all the inferno, I discovered the kindness of relatives and strangers alike, who rallied effectively, acted as one well-oiled machine and helped me take every step in this crazy chaos that surrounds us. I must state my inexhaustible appreciation for all the media systems, in Israel and around the world, who work day and night to bring to the headlines the stories of the survivors, the abducted and the dead, and to make the voices of entire families that do not receive the treatment they deserve as citizens, from the authorities," she said.
Shay-Li's aunt, the singer Gali Atari, recently paid tribute to Yahav: "Shay-Li, my beloved niece, there are no words to describe the deep sadness over the hero's death of Yahav, your beautiful and pristine husband, the predation and madness you went through. And Shia is one month old, your gorgeous baby in your arms. I salute you and Yahav for your resourcefulness in the moments of hell, for the heroism of both of you. In aching body, in aching heart, loving to the end."
On Monday, Atari shared her shocking testimony of the moments of terror she and her one-month-old daughter Shia experienced when Hamas terrorists broke into their home as part of the attack that led to the Swords of Iron War. "Shia, who is one month old, did not eat for 27 hours," she said. "Every time she cried, the terrorists shot at the house where we were hiding."
"At half past six in the morning, explosions started and we heard gunshots," she said. "Soon we realized that these were not ordinary explosions, and in our WhatsApp groups we realized that there was an infiltration of terrorists. We closed the bomb shelter and started hearing voices and shouts in Arabic. We heard the terrorists outside our house, so my husband and I switched to silent mode and spoke in mime. We agreed with our gestures that if the terrorists come in, he will hold the door and I will run away with Shia, our one-month-old baby.
"They started to open the window of the shelter and a terrorist's hand came in and started to push the window. Yahav was holding the window and I ran out the door of the shelter with her in my arms. She was asleep at the time and didn't wake up. I started running and looked to enter the neighbors' house, I knocked and there was no answer. I hid in the bushes and then behind doors. I heard them approaching again and entered the warehouse. The shots continued and I put garden planters over us, and for self-defense I took a hammer and a chisel.
"We had sour milk and water, and we all shared it. My daughter would barely eat it, but that's what we had because I couldn't breastfeed"
"But then Shia started crying so they approached us. Every Shia's cry was literally like prey for them. They heard her crying and started to get closer. I ran outside and knocked on the door of neighbors who saw me thanks to the cameras. I entered the shelter with them along with their three children."
Atari described the state of helplessness she was in, not knowing at the time what happened to her husband. The family that rescued her had nothing to eat. "We had sour milk and water, and we all shared it. My daughter would barely eat it, but that's what we had because I couldn't breastfeed. Instead of a pacifier, I gave her my finger."