Natalie Raanan will turn 18 next week.
But what should be a time of celebration and planning for her future is instead filled with desperation and sadness, her brother, Ben Raanan of Denver, said Thursday as Natalie and her mother, Judith Raanan, are believed to be .
Just 13 days ago, Natalie and Judith Raanan, who live in a suburb outside of Chicago, were visiting Judith’s mother in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz about a mile from Gaza in southern Israel.
Natalie texted her and Ben’s father early on Oct. 7, the morning of the unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“She was celebrating her grandmother’s 85th birthday with (Judith), and they heard gunshots and explosions coming from out the door,” Ben Raanan said. “She sent my father a text saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to lock myself in the house and try to keep quiet,’ and that was the last we heard from” either Natalie or Judith.
The Associated Press has documented during Hamas’ incursion into Israel. Of those, about 140 are confirmed as likely hostages — whether by witnesses who saw them being taken away by militants, from army information given to their families, or by their appearances on social media postings by Hamas. At least 85 of the missing are either foreign or dual nationals, according to AP’s data, and at least 20 are children.
Israel this week updated its own list of hostages to 199.
In a on the way to Tel Aviv with President Joe Biden on Tuesday, John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, said at least 31 Americans were killed in Israel, and 13 Americans were still unaccounted for.
For Ben Raanan, this isn’t about politics.
“Natalie is not a politician; she’s not a soldier,” he said. “She’s a 17-year-old girl who’s about to turn 18.”
Raanan said the family has been in contact with both the Israeli and American governments, and even spoke to Biden last week.
After the area Natalie and Judith had been in was liberated, the Israeli military went to the house where they’d last been seen, and there was glass from a broken window inside the home. Raanan said a neighbor reported he’d peered out of his house and seen Hamas members take Natalie and Judith away.
“The current belief is they are still alive,” Raanan said.
The only thing he can feel is sadness as he holds onto hope for his family’s safety.
The last big conversation Raanan had with his sister before she left was about her next steps in life, whether she wanted to go into fashion, become an interior designer or apprentice as a tattoo artist.
And he knows Judith Raanan, who was married to his father for several years before getting a divorce, as a peaceful, compassionate artist who loved everyone.
“I have an autistic brother who is nonverbal, and the world has to be nervous around him,” Ben Raanan said. “Judith never was. Even after my father and Judith got divorced, and there was no reason for Judith to try and keep a relationship, she would go and do arts and crafts projects with him. She just values life; she values every human in this world.”
Judith’s love for life and peace is echoed in Ben Raanan’s thoughts as his family goes through this, and he said he hopes people will look at the individuals who are suffering because of this war.
“It’s kind of easy to look at everything on the macro scale, but there are families who are deeply affected by what’s going on,” he said. “We’re a peaceful (family). We don’t believe in loss of life on either side. All we care about is getting my sister back, getting my stepmother back, and making sure we can stop this horrible tragedy as soon as possible.”
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