Vital-Kaploun family

The children who were almost kidnapped

Vital-Kaploun family

Alone with her two children, Adi Vital-Kaploun grabs a rifle and calls Anani, her partner, for guidance. She kills a terrorist before being killed. The terrorists kidnap her children, Negev (3.5) and Eshel (4m), along with a neighbor but release them just inside the Gaza Strip

Vital-Kaploun family

The children who were almost kidnapped

Vital-Kaploun family

Minute by Minute Circle
06:30
~07:00
11:00
12:30
13:30
18:50
23:00

The sequence of events

Minute by Minute

Click on the points on the timeline for a real-time tour. Clicking on the icons will display the event documentation.

06:30

Alarms in Holit

~07:00

Shots outside the house

11:00

Contact with Adi has been lost

12:30

Terrorists infiltrate the house

The terrorists are left alone with the children

Terrorists bobby trap Adi's body

13:30

The terrorists move the children to the neighbor's house

The three are abducted towards Rafah

The terrorists abruptly leave

Avital spots other terrorists and hides

18:50

Avital returns with the children to the kibbutz

23:00

The children meet their father

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At the sound of the alarms, Adi Vital-Kaploun enters the safe room with her two children. Her partner Anani is not at home

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Adi takes the M16 rifle from the safe, she calls Anani and asks him to remind her how to operate the weapon

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Neighbour Avital Aldjam talks to Adi on the phone for the last time. Adi tells her she's on guard

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The terrorists manage to infiltrate the house and have an exchange of fire with Adi. She manages to kill one of the terrorists but is murdered a few minutes after. Her eldest son described her last moments to his father: 'She told us to remember that she loved us the most in the world and then she went away'

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Bullet holes on the walls of the house
Bullet holes on the walls of the house
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Bullet holes on the walls of the house
Bullet holes on the walls of the house
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The terrorists record themselves with the children in the courtyard of the house. They pick them up, shake baby Eshel in the crib and dress the foot of Negev that was injured by their gunfire

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A terrorist picks up the children
A terrorist picks up the children
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The yard after the Hamas attack
The yard after the Hamas attack Photo: From “The Evening News”
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    The terrorists rock the crib and pick up the children Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      The terrorists rock the crib and pick up the children Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      Before the terrorists leave the house, they bobby trap Adi's body and place it under a bed. On her body they place extra objects to hide the explosives

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      The Booby-trapped safe room
      The Booby-trapped safe room
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      The Booby-trapped safe room
      The Booby-trapped safe room
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      The Booby-trapped safe room
      The Booby-trapped safe room
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      Avital and her neighbor, Dr. Haim Katzman, hide in a closet in the safe room of her home. Eight terrorists break into the house, shoot everywhere and kill Dr. Katzman. The terrorists take Avital out of the closet and move her to the living room of her house. There they also hold Negev, who was injured in his foot and forehead, and Eshel, who has difficulty breathing after inhaling gunpowder

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      The closet where Avital Aldjam and Dr. Haim Katzman are hiding
      The closet where Avital Aldjam and Dr. Haim Katzman are hiding
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      Destruction at Avital Aldjam's home
      Destruction at Avital Aldjam's home
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      The living room of Avital aldjam's home after the attack
      The living room of Avital aldjam's home after the attack
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      Avital and the children are moved by the terrorists from house to house until they are abducted from the kibbutz through a hole in the fence, all the way to Rafah. During the march, Avital holds baby Eshel, and one of the terrorists carries the injured Negev on his shoulders. Throughout, Negev yells and cries that he wants to get off

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      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack.
      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack. Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack.
      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack. Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack.
      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack. Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack.
      The burned kibbutz houses after the attack. Photo: From “The Evening News”
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      After they pass the open perimeter fence and head towards Rafah, the terrorists signal to Avital that she and the children can walk back into Israeli territory. The terrorist takes Negev off his shoulders, Avital and the children are left alone a few hundred meters inside Gaza

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        The moment of Avital and the children's release inside Gaza. Photograph: From Al-Jazeera
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        Avital takes Negev and Eshel and the three start heading back towards the kibbutz. At the border, near the fence, she spots another terrorist squad and hides with the children behind a hill of sand

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          The moment of Avital and the children's release inside Gaze. Photograph: From Al-Jazeera
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          Avital finds a hole in the fence, through which she and the children manage to climb back to Holit

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          Anani reunites with his two children in Kibbutz Gvulot, where Avital and the children were moved. At this point, Adi is still defined as missing

          The Day After

          10/8/23

          The children are treated in the hospital

          10/10/23

          Adi's body is found.

          15/10/23

          Adi is brought to burial

          10/16/23

          A moment of silece in memory of the victims at a basketball game
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          Eshel and Negev are evacuated with their father to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem

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          Adi's booby-trapped body is located, after it was hidden by the terrorists in the safe room

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          The Booby trapped safe room The Booby trapped safe room
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          Adi is laid to rest at the “Land of Life” cemetery in Beit Shemesh

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          Adi Vital-Kaplon Adi Vital-Kaplon
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          Basketball player Shay Doron raises a sign in memory of Adi, who was a basketball fan, at the WNBA finals series

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          Shai Doron waves a sign in memory of Adi Shai Doron waves a sign in memory of Adi Photography under Section 27A of the Copyright Act
          Stories of Holit
          Fallen Names
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