Desperate to save them, a trauma therapist stayed on the line for 12 hours until help arrived

After their parents lay dead before their eyes and their little sister kidnapped, nine-year-old Michael and six-year-old Amelia spent the next twelve hours huddled on a closet shelf. But they weren’t alone — the soothing voice of a trauma therapist from the other end of the country didn’t leave them for a minute

This is a story that straddled two homes on opposite ends of the country on Israel’s most gruesome day. One of the houses is situated in the new part of Kfar Azah, right along the kibbutz’s fence about three miles east of the Gaza Strip.

The Idan family lived in that house: Roi Idan was a well-known photographer for Ynet, and Smadar, whose life was much more private, was an employee of the Shin Bet. This is the home they lived in with their three children — Michael, nine; Amelia, six; and Avigayil, then three — until the parents were gunned down in front of their children on October 7.

The other house is located in Rosh Pinah all the way up north. This is the home of a social worker named Dr. Tamar Schlezinger. In the agonizing hours of Simchas Torah, their lives would soon converge.

IT was Michael Idan, all of nine years old, who was suddenly and unwittingly thrust into a position of leadership. Terrorists had infiltrated their home and murdered Smadar, who was lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Roi had left the house a few minutes before the invasion, and Michael called him to come home immediately. He quickly returned home, having managed to film the start of the Hamas invasion and sent the first pictures of terrorists paragliding across the border to the news site before grabbing the children and leaving the house to try and make a run for safety.

He was holding three-year-old Avigayil in his arms when terrorists shot and mortally wounded him. Avigayil, covered in her father’s blood, fell to the ground and managed to run to their neighbors, the Brodutch family. Avichai Brodutch brought her into their safe room so she could be with his wife and three children and then went out with the town’s emergency squad to fight the terrorists; ten minutes later, when he came back to check on his family, he discovered that his wife, children, and Avigayil had been kidnapped and dragged off to Gaza.

Meanwhile, for some reason, the terrorist who shot Roi waved his hand at Michael and Amelia, shooing them away.

Not knowing what else to do, Michael took Amelia’s hand, ran back inside, called his mother’s name, but when she didn’t answer, called Roi’s mother. He told his grandmother that he thought his father, mother, and sister Avigayil had all been killed (he didn’t know that Avigayil had escaped). Michael’s grandmother had no idea what they were talking about.

“I’m going to call Smadar,” she said, “and we’ll figure out what’s going on.”

But Smadar didn’t answer. Amelia answered instead, innocently reassuring her grandmother that the army would be there soon to rescue them.

Then nine-year-old Michael called the police.

He was connected to a young MDA dispatcher named Linoy Al-Ezra. Linoy asked Michael a series of questions to try to understand the situation in his home. He told her that his mother was bleeding from gunshot wounds and was unresponsive. Linoy, immediately understanding the danger, instructed them on how to stay safe: She told Michael to lock their home’s front door and remove the key, take Amelia’s hand, go to their safe room, and close the door. Michael told her that the safe room door was too heavy, so she suggested that they hide in the safe room closet, close the door, and not open it unless there was someone they knew there.

She told them to keep on calling if no one came to help, which they did — until the MDA switchboard was overwhelmed by the thousands of calls pouring in. Still, Linoy knew she had to do something to keep those children safe, and a call was put in to United Hatzalah’s “Chosen” Psychotrauma and Crisis Response unit.