Excruciating hell for Israeli-Australian family of missing sister Moran Yanai

It is 20 days on and there is no word about the fate of Moran Yanai the jewellery artist after a horrifying Hamas video shows her praying for her life at gunpoint at the Nova festival.

Animal-loving designer Moran Yanai was surrounded by Hamas gunmen on October 7 when they attacked the Nova Festival.

It has been nearly three long, heartbreaking, horrendous weeks. Computer programmer Lion Yanai cannot sleep. His sister Lea has put her dance career on hold.

Their parents, Rimona and Moshe, are devastated and wracked with unmentionable and traumatic thoughts of what their youngest daughter, Moran, may be experiencing.

Only assistance from the Israeli army and their Be’er-sheva community is keeping them going.

Of Moran, a 40-year-old free-spirited, animal-loving designer who was so excited to be finally selling her hand-made silver jewellery that she posted a video of setting up her wares at the Nova festival, there has been no word for 20 days.

Nothing. Israeli officials, charity organisations and the Red Cross have zero information. Where is Moran? Is she one of the more than 260 festival goers who were slaughtered, some of whose remains are yet to be identified? Or has she been kidnapped and is among the 222 who have dis­appeared into the labyrinth of Hamas tunnels?

Lion and Lea have spent the weeks scouring the internet, scanning horrific images to try to re-trace Moran’s movements, search­ing for the smallest clue to where she may be. They have joined with other hostage families to pressure government officials to try to rescue their loved ones.

Moran’s older sister Lea, 43, is an Australian citizen through her marriage to Dan Mor, an actor in Underbelly. Lea has even danced alongside Kylie Minogue when she was with the Sydney Dance Company and she urges Anthony Albanese “to do whatever he can so that there is humanitarian aid to Palestine and to ask him to get more information about the hostages and add to the international pressure to bring all of the hos­tages back home quickly’’.

They fervently hope and believe Moran is a hostage.

Ms Yanai being taken hostage by Hamas on October 7.

Lea tells The Australian that she wants to bring Moran to Bondi Beach so she can relax in Australia’s freedom-loving atmosphere to recover once the ordeal is over. She admits the toll on herself and her family is excruciating.

Lion, 46, adds from home in Tel Aviv: “I’m very optimistic, I hope for good, I’m not losing hope.”

On the first day of their family nightmare, they found a nine-­second video clip on TikTok of their terrified sister crouched in a dirt hollow, her hands clasped in prayer as Hamas gunmen surround her.

A shadow on the clip shows one Hamas terrorist is filming her with his left hand while holding a gun in his right. The clip was posted on the social media site around lunchtime on the first day, with derogatory references to Jews.

The family knows Moran had spent several hours before this was filmed desperately trying to escape the terrorists as they ruthlessly hunted across open dirt fields of the Nova festival site, 2km from Re’im kibbutz.

Moran had rung her parents at 8.30am on October 7, two hours after armed paragliders had landed and pick-up trucks of gun-­toting savages began systemically to slaughter music goers – murdering everyone hiding inside the portable toilets with a fusillade of bullets, mowing down vehicles on the road and setting them alight, throwing grenades into a bomb shelter that killed at least 30.

Lion Yanai and Lea Mor, brother and sister of Moran Yanai.

At the beginning of the attack she and other terrified festival goers had begun to drive away, only to encounter a group of gunmen. They abandoned the vehicle to run in another direction, only to find more terrorists ahead.

They would run towards a point, thinking it would take them away from the horror, only to see other festival goers running back towards them with terrorists behind them, shooting.

In her frantic phone call home, Moran, in breathless panicked tones, told her mother she was being shot at on the run and she was low on battery.

Lion has since discovered that soon after this call, the group had split up – possibly around 9am – while trying to hide in the scrubby bushes. Two of those people Moran had initially fled with survived the ambush. “We know the group was in a super-panic, they ran to one place to hide and escape, they would run to another place,’’ said Lion.

For the Yanai family there has been no relief from the torment.

Lion says he has tried to ignore all rumours to stay focused on his task of pressuring the international community to do more for the hostages. In a message to his younger sister, he hopes she knows they are doing everything they can to find her, and that she has reserves of strength and optimism.

Lea sends her love: “We can’t wait to be with you, we love you.’’