Update: Nov. 28, 3 p.m.
KYW Newsradio has confirmed that Dietza Heiman, the 84-year-old Lower Merion woman kidnapped by Hamas, is among the hostages released to Israel on Tuesday.
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PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Lower Merion family says their beloved 84-year-old grandmother was kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas terrorists. They’ve called on the world to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages.
Elad Shdaimah, of Ardmore, says when his family heard about the Oct. 7 terror attack of Israel’s kibbutzim bordering Gaza, they frantically made calls to their grandmother, Dietza Heiman. He says one call was intercepted by an Arabic speaker calling, “Hamas, Hamas” into her phone.
“We were kind of hanging on to hope that maybe they stole her phone,” Shdaimah said. “But even if that was the case, who knew if she was alive?”
Shdaimah’s father, Amichai, says a neighbor later recalled seeing Heiman being kidnapped from her house by Hamas. “He saw she was surrounded by terrorists and he just ran back to his safe room and luckily, he survived,” he told KYW Newsradio, “to tell us that she was captured alive.”
Later, Shdaimah says his cousins found a video of her capture being circulated online as Hamas propaganda.
“They must have been scouring their [web] sites,” he said. “I can't imagine what that would have been like for them, but they found this video of my savta (grandmother). She was alive when she was captured.”
Amichai says her kibbutz, Nir Oz, was like a second home to his family, “to visit Savta Dietza,” he said, “to get great food, love and care.” He adds the hostages cannot be forgotten amid the war. “Of course, we tried to put the hostage situation to be the top priority. We tried to make that happen, but we don't know what happened behind the scenes,” he said.
Shdaimah says he hasn’t been able to look at photos of her destroyed kibbutz, and thoughts of where she may be now are painful. “I don't know how people are treating her there, too. I don't want her spirit to be broken,” he shared. “My savta meant love to me.”