Abigail Edan was three years old when she saw her parents murdered in front of her. She served four years while she was held captive by the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza. And a few months before her fifth birthday, she played with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
It has been an incredible journey for the little girl, who captured hearts around the world.
Abigail survived starvation and lived in filthy, insect-infested conditions during the 50 days she was detained in Gaza, one of the youngest captives in the Israel-Hamas war.
He was reunited with his brother and sister. Now the children, who live with relatives in Israel, are recovering from their trauma and reestablishing their family ties.
President Biden met with Abigail in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
President Biden with Abigail, his siblings and his cousins
Abigail, who has dual American-Israeli citizenship, was the youngest hostage released by Hamas when she was freed in November.
They took her to A.Tzerim Air Force Base, where he was reunited with his aunt Liron and grandmother Shlomit. He later met with more family members at Schneider Hospital, near Tel Aviv where the doctors said he was “very well.”
His release was celebrated throughout the world.
‘Thank God she’s home. I wish I was there to hug her,’ Biden said at the time.
On Wednesday, Biden was able to give him a hug when Abigail and her family spent more than an hour with him at the White House.
Like any normal little girl, she played with the president’s desk, crawling through the famous open door of the Resolute Desk. She also made it to the South Lawn, where she enjoyed the huge swings that President Barack Obama had installed for his young daughters.
‘She played in the Oval Office. “She crawled out the door to the desk that has that famous photo of John F. Kennedy’s little boy,” a senior administration official said of the meeting. “She came out and was on the swing and playing on the playground we have on the south lawn.”
Biden posted a photo of him holding Abigail in the Oval Office.
“Her family sent me a note saying she was coming home and she said, ‘You know, I love Joe Biden,'” he told reporters at the meeting.
The president also posted a second photo of him and Abigail with their siblings and cousins standing in the Oval Office in front of the Resolute Desk.
He wrote: ‘Last year we secured the release of Abigail, a 4-year-old girl who was being held by Hamas. She is extraordinary and is recovering from unspeakable trauma. Our time together yesterday was a reminder of the work we have ahead of us to secure the release of all remaining hostages.’
Abigail is seen with an IDF soldier shortly after her release by Hamas in November.
Abigail’s parents, Roy Edan, 43, and Smadar Edan, 40, were shot dead when Hamas militants stormed their kibbutz in southern Israel; her brother and her sister hid in a closet
Abigail is seen with her aunt Liron, third from the left, her uncle Zuli, second from the right, and her grandparents Shlomit, right, and Eitan at Schneider Children’s Medical Center after her release.
Abigail’s family was one of the first victims of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
That day, Hamas militants stormed his kibbutz, Kfar Azza, about two miles from the Gaza border, and killed his parents, Roy Edan, 43, and Smadar Edan, 40.
Roy Edan, a photographer for the Israeli news outlet Ynet, had been taking some of the first photographs of the assault.
He was holding Abigail when he was shot and killed.
Abigail’s siblings, brother Michael, 10, and sister Amalya, 6, locked themselves inside a closet and hid for 14 hours. They survived and were reunited with their family shortly after the attack.
But Abigail had to crawl from beneath her father’s lifeless body, covered in blood, to her neighbor’s house.
The Brodutch family took her in while the commotion broke out. All five (Abigail, Hagar Brodutch, and her three children) disappeared.
Abigail’s extended family in Israel feared the worst: that she and her parents would have been killed.
But his name later appeared on a hostage list along with those of the Brodutch family.
During her time in captivity, Abigail was kept in filthy conditions and was not given enough food.
His family said after his release that he was “hungry.”
Otherwise, the little girl spent time playing with her siblings and enjoying meals with her family.
The first images of Abigail Edan’s reunion with her grandmother and aunt after Hamas took her hostage following the murder of her parents at the hands of the terrorist group
Abigail played the White House Resolute Desk, hiding in the same spot where John F. Kennedy Jr. hid when his father, John Kennedy, was president.
Abigail was playing on the same swing that President Barack Obama had installed for his daughters Sasha and Malia (above)
Liz Hirsh Naftali, Abigail’s cousin and great-aunt, told NPR last year that Abigail ‘had run to a neighbor’s house after crawling out from under her father’s body. And these neighbors welcomed her.
He added that the four-year-old girl “was hungry” when she was released.
“She’s been eating and drinking and very happy to be with her family and her siblings,” Naftali said.
He noted that Abigail had not spoken much about what had happened in those 50 days in Gaza.
He told Katie Couric: “We’re slowly learning that, basically, it was dirty.” They were moved a couple of times. It’s unclear exactly where they were moved and how they were moved, but they weren’t in one place. It was infested with insects. There was no adequate food for any child to eat for 50 days. “We’re learning little by little, but those are the things that have been shared with us.”
The Brodutch family, ranging in age from 4 to 84, was also released with Abigail.
Much of the early days of the war were marked by concern for Abigail. There was a countdown to see if she would be released before November 24, her fourth birthday.
She was released a few days later.