Mika Shani, hostage families to visit Australia to raise awareness of the Gaza and Israel conflict

Mika Shani has recounted the terrifying story of Hamas terrorists storming her family home and taking her brother hostage. She is among a handful of families visiting Australia to remind the world of their plight.

“There are some days like I feel I am going to go crazy, like the normal me has left my body and I am that close to going crazy.”

Israeli teen Mika Shani is talking about her life since October 7, when Hamas terrorists stormed her family’s kibbutz and kidnapped her 16-year old brother Amit.

Next week the 18-year-old will arrive in Australia as part of a group of hostage families who are visiting countries to remind the world about the plight of their loved ones who were taken into the Gaza Strip that day and have not been seen since.

Shani spoke to the Saturday Herald Sun just hours before the first batch of hostages was set to be released by Hamas, a group she hopes her brother will be in.

Since her brother vanished into Gaza she had been consoling herself and her family with the thought that “kidnapped is not dead”.

However, sadly since speaking to the Herald Sun on Thursday, the family has learned Amit was not among the 24 people, including 13 Israelis, released by Hamas on Saturday morning.

“The only thing that makes me a little bit calmer is I know he is with people that he knows and he is with an adult who is trying to take responsibility for him but you know it’s another level of anxiety,” she said.

Mika Shani.

Amit Shani was taken hostage in Gaza by Hamas terrorists

Shani was staying at a friend’s house outside the kibbutz when the Hamas attack began about 7am and bizarre as it might sound to Australian ears, at first she was not that concerned as Hamas raids are a fact of life.

“Every time until today when it happen, it’s like three to five people maximum and you know it’s like one hour and the IDF is controlling the situation and this whole thing is over,” she said.

Her first inkling that this was “serious – not a joke” was when her father told her not to send a friend to the kibbutz to seek shelter as it was not safe.

Then around 10.30am she got what she said was “a goodbye message” from her dad.

“He told me the terrorists broke into the house, they are trying to break into the shelter,” he said.

“They didn’t successfully do it but they burnt the house…. there was a lot of smoke. He hoped he could hold on and survive but if he couldn’t breathe any more he will jump from the window. He said he loves me, he trusts me to take care of everyone. It was like an ‘I’m going to die’ message”.

Luckily, although he was hospitalised for smoke inhalation, her dad survived, as did her both grandparents, her grandmother badly: “She ended up bleeding for nine hours until someone came to take her out.”

Indeed she agrees she was lucky none of her family died that day unlike one friend who lost all of them.

Hostage Amit Shani (far left) and his family including his sister Mika.

Amit Shani and his sister Mika as children.

Shani had also been texting with her mother who was holed up in the safe room in another house with her brother Amit and two younger sisters.

Around midday the terrorists broke into the room where they were hiding.

“Amit was the only man so he tried to jump on the door to close it on them and then they catch him and my mum screamed at him ‘don’t do anything, let them do what they’re going to do because if not they are going to kill you.’

The family were taken outside and made to sit on the ground alongside their neighbours.

“The terrorists came to my two little sisters and put a knife to next their necks and take pictures there like, ‘we are going to kill you’, this kind of stuff,” she said.

They then ordered the males to get into a car.

“When they got Amit into the car my mum started to scream and cry and she came to the commander of this group and she begged him, she looked in his eyes and she told him ‘take me, take me’ and she tried to explain to him in Hebrew and English – she doesn’t really know any Arabic – he’s just a boy, he’s not a soldier, he’s a teenager, he didn’t do anything, he didn’t shoot anybody he didn’t kill anybody, he’s just like a little boy.

Mika said she was prepared totravel to the other side of the world for her brother.

“Then the commander he stopped her with his hand and with his other hand, he put it on his gun and then she takes two steps back because she had her two little daughters behind her and the last thing they need to see is their mum murdered. My mum screamed to him ‘I love you’ don’t be frightened, don’t be frightened, we will get you out.”

Since that day her life has been all about getting her brother back including coming to Australia.

“I am going to fly to the other side of the world for Amit. I would give my life for him to come back.”

“I think a lot people in the world, not just in Australia, know about the situation only from the media and the media is lying… The things that happened on October 7 were the closest thing to the Holocaust. Like who is kidnapping babies? Who cuts women’s breast for fun? Who does those things? It’s crazy to me and I don’t know how people can support it.

“The thing I want to achieve is to tell the truth, to open people’s eyes and to raise people’s awareness about what happened.”

“Israel is under attack and I don’t know how people think it’s not ok for us to defend ourselves. I don’t know if you know the saying “that if the Palestinians put the guns down there will be peace and if the Israelis put the guns down there is no more Israel” – that’s how it really is.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy said the relatives and representatives of victims and hostages of the terrorist attacks will visit Australia next week, sharing their personal accounts with the leaders of the Federal and State governments.

“It is imperative that Australians see that behind the horrific numbers, are people – names, faces and families with broken hearts who are urging the world to help bring their loved ones home,” she said.