A year after she was taken hostage, Avigail Idan adapts to new family life

Avigail and her siblings, Michael and Amalia, are adjusting to a new life being adopted by their aunt and uncle.

 Leron and Zoli Mor look at matching tattoos representing representing the new constellation of their family in Bnei Dror, Israel, September 18, 2024. (photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Leron and Zoli Mor look at matching tattoos representing representing the new constellation of their family in Bnei Dror, Israel, September 18, 2024.
(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Israeli couple Leron and Zoli Mor have identical tattoos on their arms showing a procession of eight elephants, their tails and trunks intertwined.

The first two are the parents, and the six smaller ones behind them are the calves. The last three are even smaller than the rest and are depicted in fresher ink because they were added later.

The eight elephants represent the Mor family. Leron and Zoli Mor have three children of their own and have adopted three others whose parents – one of them Leron's sister – were killed in the October 7 massacre last year.

"They were five," Leron Mor said at the family's new home in the northern Israeli village of Bnei Dror, pointing to that tattoo on her arm. "And they were joined by three more."

One of the three who were adopted, Avigail Idan, was among more than 250 people taken hostage during the attack led by Hamas. She was released last November, though 101 people are still in captivity as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. Nearly half of the hostages are estimated to still be alive.

 First photo of Avigail Idan with her aunt and grandmother after her release from Hamas captivity, November 27, 2023 (credit: Courtesy)
First photo of Avigail Idan with her aunt and grandmother after her release from Hamas captivity, November 27, 2023 (credit: Courtesy)

"We do not forget about them for one moment"

She was three at the time of the attack, in which her parents were among 1,200 people killed. Her older siblings, Michael and Amalia, hid in a cabinet at their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, their mother lying lifeless on the floor nearby.

The Mors were also living in the kibbutz at the time and were rescued from their home the day after the attack. They now live far away in Bnei Dror, an agricultural village near the Mediterranean coast.

"The conversation here in the house is very open. We talk about their parents. We do not forget about them for one moment," said Leron Mor. "We look at pictures together. And they are present in our lives."

Avigail also has US citizenship, and she and the family met US President Joe Biden in the White House in April.


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"He was simply compassionate and warm and caring," Leron Mor said. "We spoke to him about the people, our friends, who are still there, and all the hostages. We asked him to make every effort to get them out because that's the only important thing right now. There is nothing more important than that."