Traumatized Israeli relives harrowing moment she was kidnapped by brutal Hamas terrorists who dragged her from her closet along with her Canadian neighbor’s baby and boy, 3 whose mother is still among the missing

• A woman who was taken by Hamas terrorists during Saturday’s attack has recounted her heroic escape 
• Avital Aladjem explained that she was taken alongside her neighbor’s children to Gaza but managed to escape and return them to their father
• The children’s mother remains missing 
• Israel-Hamas LIVE: Read our live blog to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the bloody conflict 

An Israeli woman has gut-wrenchingly described how she dramatically escaped from the clutches of her Hamas hostage takers along with her neighbor’s children after they had been taken into Gaza, along with the kids’ mother. 

Avital Aladjem told Channel 12 in a heartbreaking interview that although she was able to escape with the children, their mother remains in captivity at the hands of Hamas terrorists. 

Aladjem said that in the midst of the brutal assault on Saturday, she hid in her home in Kibbutz Holit, a little over a mile from Gaza. From her hiding place, she was texting her neighbor, Adi Vital-Kaploun, a Canadian citizen. 

When Aladjem’s home was stormed by gunmen, another neighbor who was with her was shot and killed. Aladjem said that she survived because her neighbor ‘absorbed’ all of the bullets. 

The woman said that she was dragged from her home where she joined Kaploun’s two children Eshel, four months, and Negev, 4. The terrorists marched the trio to Gaza, the children’s mother was nowhere to be seen. 

A woman who was taken by Hamas terrorists during Saturday’s attack has recounted her heroic escape

Adi Vital-Kaploun, a Canadian citizen, remains missing in the aftermath of Hamas’ brutal attack 

Avital Aladjem was forced to march from the kibbutz where she lived into Gaza alongside her Kaplouns’ young children

‘Everything was destroyed and full of blood; they took us from house to house with shooting all around, as they burned the houses and the cars,’ Aladjem said. 

A Hamas terrorist carried the four-year-old on his shoulders as Aladjem clutched the baby. 

After the group reached Gaza, they three were left alone. A quick thinking Aladjem began to slowly back out of the warzone with the children. Along their journey back to the kibbutz, Aladjem was forced to hide with the children in sand dunes as Hamas patrols walked passed. 

‘We continued and continued and I believed we’d get back home,’ she said, adding that she wasn’t sure how long the journey took. 

As they got closer to home, Aladjem said that she saw many of her neighbors preparing to flee. During the journey, Aladjem assured the four-year-old that she would see her father again soon. 

The group landed in the town of Gvulot where they were met by the children’s father. ‘I’m alive, but their mother is missing,’ Aladjem said. 

In a separate interview with CNN, Aladjem described the two children as being ‘traumatized’ by what they experienced. 

‘Both of the traumatized and quiet. They were both just staring at the terrorists with terrified eyes.’ Negev was slightly injured during the ordeal by flying shrapnel, she added. 

In that piece, Aladjem also revealed that Eshel is still being breast fed by his mother, who remains missing.  

Adi Vital-Kaplon, 33, was snatched by militants from her home near Gaza on Saturday with four-year-old Negev and Eshel, six months

In an interview with The Australian newspaper, a friend of Kaploun’s family described the four-year-old as being used as a ‘human shield’ by the militants. 

‘Adi tried to hang on as much as she could,’ the friend said. 

He said that Hamas terrorists through a grenade into the living room of their home, forcing them out. 

Hamas terrorists also killed Kaploun’s brother-in-law’s girlfriend during Saturday’s massacre. 

Hamas’ attack tunned Israel with a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria — and those deaths happened over a longer period of time. 

It brought horrific scenes of Hamas militant gunning down civilians in their cars on the road, in streets of towns, and at a music festival attended by thousands in the desert near Gaza, while dragging men, women and children into captivity.

U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak Tuesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about coordination with allies to “defend Israel and innocent people against terrorism,” the White House said.

The Israeli military said more than 900 people have been killed in Israel. In Gaza and the West Bank, 704 people have been killed, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

The bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were found on Israeli territory, the military said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.

In Gaza, more than 187,000 people have fled their homes, the U.N. said, the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000. 

The vast majority are sheltering in schools run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Damage to three water and sanitation sites have cut off services to 400,000 people, the U.N. said.

Days after the initial attack, Israeli warplanes hammered the Gaza Strip neighborhood by neighborhood on Tuesday, reducing buildings to rubble and sending people scrambling to find safety in the tiny, sealed-off territory as Israel vowed a retaliation for Hamas’ surprise weekend attack that would ‘reverberate … for generations.’

Aid organizations pleaded for the creation of humanitarian corridors to get aid into Gaza, warning that hospitals overwhelmed with wounded were running out of supplies. 

Israel has stopped all access of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza, and the sole remaining access from Egypt shut down Tuesday after airstrikes hit near the border crossing.

The war began after Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday, bringing gun battles to its streets for the first time in decades. 

At least 1,600 lives have already been claimed on both sides, and perhaps hundreds more. Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold more than 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel.

The conflict is only expected to escalate. Israel expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000 on Tuesday, according to the country’s media. 

After days of fighting, Israel’s military said Tuesday morning that it had regained effective control over areas Hamas attacked in its south, and of the Gaza border.

A looming question is whether Israel will launch a ground offensive into Gaza — a 25 mile-long strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million people and has been governed by Hamas since 2007.

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