Four days was all Maayan Idan had to enjoy the first flushes of adulthood. Balloons and cards bought for her 18th birthday still adorned her home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz – less than half a mile away from Gaza - when armed Hamas terrorists violently burst through the door in the early hours of October 7, 2023.
She and her terrified family fled towards their safe room where Maayan spent the next dreadful moments clamping down on the door handle with her father, Tsachi, to prevent the masked attackers from entering.
But eventually the pair were overpowered, with the door coming slightly ajar. A gun burst of bullets flew into the darkened room, forcing the family to hit the floor. When they came to, they saw Maayan had been fatally shot.
Tsachi held her lifeless body in his arms, Maayan's blood covering his hands and legs, before being struck by the heartrending realisation his eldest child had succumbed to her wounds.
Still wearing their pyjamas, Tsachi, his wife Gali and their two youngest children Yael, 11 and Shachar, 9, were then ordered to leave the safe room and sit on the living room floor, just metres away from Maayan's body. To add to their torment, one of their Hamas captors forced Gali to open her phone and begin streaming their plight on Facebook Live.
