A local family, frantic with worry and desperate for answers, fears for the safety of a relative believed to be among those kidnapped by Hamas while attending a music festival in Southern Israel. Families around the world are in a state of panic waiting for news of loved ones missing in the war-torn region.
Keren Cohen, who lived in Israel most of her life before moving to California still has family in Israel and is anxiously waiting for any news about her cousin, Itzik Dahan, who didn’t come home from the deadly music festival Friday night.
“Itzik is missing. And I said what? What do you mean?” Cohen said. “He’s missing. He’s been in the festival of music in the southern part of Israel and they don’t know where he is.”
Dahan, Cohen’s cousin, is a 47-year-old father of a seven year old son and a successful landscape architect in Israel who loved music and was with friends at the Supernova music festival in Sukkot.
“If you sit in the center of room, everyone is attracted to him,” Cohen said. “He makes everyone laugh. He makes life very happy. He’s a very positive person. I adore him.”
After Hamas terrorists attacked, slaughtering festival goers and taking others captive, Cohen says Dahan was not on the list of the 260 bodies recovered at the festival site, yet she has not heard from him since the attack
“Listen by this time, most likely he’s been kidnapped,” she said. “He’s been kidnapped by the terrorists. I cannot say anything for sure because we have [not gotten] any evidence, any proof, but there is no other option.”
Cohen also says a friend told the family Dahan may have been shot in the leg and his phone’s last location was in Gaza.
“The family is [devastated],” she said. “It’s heartbreaking and everyone is just you know, just the idea you have no news about him and what he’s going through and where he is.”
Dahan’s family is searching for him and doing everything they can to find him. Cohen says supporters can join her family in prayer as they wait for an answer that may never come. She was at the Israel rally in Beverly Hills on Monday and says it gave her hope and warmth to see so many people support her home country during this trying time.
