Ofelia Feler de Roitman, Gabriela Leimberg, her daughter Mia of dual nationality and Clara Marmán have been released and are already in Israel. There are still 9 compatriots captured by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
While the truce between Israel and Hamas continues, four Argentine women were released along with a new batch of hostages. They are Ofelia Feler de Roitman, Gabriela Leimberg, who returned to Israel with her daughter Mia, a dual national, and Clara Marmán.
There were 18 Argentines who had been trapped in the Gaza Strip for 52 days, captured by terrorists on Saturday, October 7. Julie and Emma Cunio, Mika and Angel Yuval, and their mother Karina were released yesterday by Hamas. Today it was the turn of two more women. Nine others are still awaiting release.
Ofelia Feler de Roitman is 77 years old and is the oldest Argentinean among the hostages. The coincidence is that they all lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The case of the baby Kfir Bibas is already a matter of global scale and one of the symbols of terrorist barbarism: he was ten months old in captivity, the son of an Argentine-Israeli family composed of his parents, Shiri Silberman and Yarden, and a 4-year-old boy, Ariel. Kfir was kidnapped on the day of the attack and is the youngest hostage in the brutal onslaught.
On the morning of Saturday, October 7, Ofelia was alone in her home: her husband Hector was in the hospital for an operation on his hip. She began to hear the riots, the bombs, and as usual she went into the shelter of her house: a bomb-proof room due to the thickness of its walls. The one who told Ofelia’s story in the media was her nephew, Hernán Feler, a sports journalist and reporter. “When the bombing started, my aunt went with her cell phone downstairs to protect herself, she was in constant contact with my cousins, until she told one of my cousins: ‘I hear strange movements outside’,” he said. It was only six o’clock in the morning.
The horror of the Hamas attack
It was the last message her children received from her. When they asked her to put her cell phone on vibrate, not to talk, to send voice mail, they only received a tick on Whatsapp: she didn’t get to read it. “And of course that’s when they started to think the worst. My aunt, like so many other people, they have been taken away, kidnapped. They are supposed to be in Gaza kidnapped by Hamas, a terrorist group that absolutely despises life”, Hernán had expressed on the third day of captivity.
Gabriela Leimberg, born in Argentina, immigrated to Israel in the late 1990s. She lives in Jerusalem and married Moshe Leimberg in 2002 and has a daughter, Mia (17), who has dual citizenship. Gabriela is the sister of Clara Marmán (63, from Kibbutz Nir-Yitzhak, kidnapped on October 7, 2023), who was also released on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Fernando Marman (60, from Kfar Saba, captured on the same day) remains in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
The woman completed her master’s degree in psychology in Argentina and works at “Shekel”, a non-profit organization, and runs a therapeutic agricultural farm for children with special needs. On Saturday, October 7, 2023, Gabriela, her daughter Mia and her dog Bella, were at her sister’s house in Kibbutz Nir-Yitzhak to celebrate Clara’s granddaughter’s birthday.
The women entered the safe room after hearing the red alert sirens, along with their brother Fernando and their sister’s partner, Louis Herr. Hamas terrorists stormed the house and kidnapped everyone in the house.
Mia, daughter of Gabriela and Moshe Leimberg, is 17 years old and a senior at the Jerusalem School of the Arts. The young girl loves to sing, swim and was taking driving lessons to get her driver’s license.
With Monday’s releases, the number of Israeli hostages freed from Gaza has reached 51, along with 19 individuals of other nationalities, and 150 Palestinian women and children have been released.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al Ansari said the Israeli hostages have been handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross: “In fulfillment of the commitment of the fifth day of the humanitarian pause, 30 Palestinian civilians will be released today in exchange for the release of 10 Israeli hostages from Gaza.”