Parent Of Israeli Hostage Urges Wyoming, America To Not Forget War With Hamas

Ilan Dalal wakes up each morning with a heart-wrenching reminder of the day a year ago when his 23-year old son Guy was kidnapped during the brutal Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Dalal and his brother are friends with Cheyenne resident Noam Mantaka, who moved to Wyoming from Israel about eight years ago.

Seeing what the Dalal family is going through while being thousands of miles away is incredibly difficult for Mantaka, who said he has considered going back to fight for Israel as a former member of the country’s defense forces.

Doing so, however, would put his American family and green card at risk.

“You feel obligated to do it, to do stuff because I could give a lot,” he said. “To know my friends and family are facing such a tragedy, to not be with them is hard.”

Fellow Cheyenne resident and Israeli national Matani Ravenna is in a similar circumstance and has felt the same pull from his homeland.

Emily Damari, 29, a friend he served with in the Israel Defense Forces, was also taken hostage and is still a captive. Although reports have surfaced that Damari has been horribly abused, Ravenna said she’s showing the bravery of a “lioness” to help lift up the spirits of others being held hostage around her.

On Monday night, the Mt. Sinai Synagogue in Cheyenne held a prayer vigil and memorial service for Guy, Damari, and all of the hostages still being held in Hamas captivity on the anniversary of the initial Hamas attacks.

Breadcrumbs

Details about the hostages taken into captivity by the terrorist group Hamas are frustratingly slow, with information few and fleeting. Often, the only confirmation of life has been when Hamas releases a video of hostages that was taken many months before.

Such as the case for the Dalal family, who can do nothing more than hope that their son and brother are still alive. They’ve had no direct contact with him since he was abducted, which Dalal said would be “a dream” to have, even if his son remained in captivity.

In June, a released hostage said they had been in the same room as Guy a few months prior, but nothing more concrete has emerged about the status of his life.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office believes that of the 101 hostages still unaccounted for in Gaza, about a third are likely dead.

Dalal said his son’s kidnapping has turned their lives upside down. The knowledge that Guy is likely spending his days in a dark tunnel, malnourished and far away from fresh air and the bright sun is particularly difficult for the Dalal family

“We hardly eat, we hardly sleep, we quit our jobs,” Dalal said. “All we do right now is 100% dedicated to bringing Guy back home.”

In many ways, Guy could fit right in as a son or daughter in Wyoming.

Dalal described his son as a charmer and a gift from God, known for his gentle heart and joyful spirit. He had just finished his education in computer programming and started a new job when abducted.

Guy also held a strong fascination with Japanese culture and had planned to visit the country with his friends for the spring bloom of the cherry blossoms.

“They canceled the tickets and they’re waiting for him to come back,” Dalal said.

How It Happened

Early in the morning Oct. 7, 2023, Guy had been attending a music festival called Supernova where gunmen attacked, killing hundreds and kidnapping dozens. He invited his older brother Gal to come to the event and he obliged, arriving by about 6 a.m. that morning.

The last message Dalal received from his son Guy came about 15 minutes before the attack started, a selfie the two brothers had taken smiling together that they had sent to their parents.

“Fifteen minutes later hell began,” Dalal said.

As Hamas swarmed in, the concertgoers fled to their cars, creating a traffic jam to get out. When the Hamas fighters started shooting people in their cars, the brothers fled on foot.

Gal was able to hide in a bush for about 10 hours, seeing horrible acts like rapes and murders before his eyes before eventually being rescued by the Israel military.

Guy wasn’t so lucky. He was one of the first people to be rounded up by Hamas.

About noon that day, Hamas released a video of five hostages already in Gaza, handcuffed and in a state of visible fright and shock. Guy was one of the five.

One of Guy’s close friends was abducted with him, but two other friends were brutally murdered. Mantaka said almost every Israeli personally knows someone who was murdered that day.

Gal had still been in hiding when his brother was abducted, and his father waited to tell him the news until he got home.

“It was a very, very hard moment for him,” Dalal said.

Why It Matters

In total, the Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people, with 251 hostages dragged back to the Gaza Strip.

Ravenna considers the event on par with what 9/11 meant to America at the time.

“It’s a scar on humanity’s conscience,” he said. “There is a lot to learn for the greater public and more attention and awareness needs to be brought to it.”

The Hamas infiltration was unprecedented in modern Israel's 76-year history, triggering a cataclysmic war in the enclave that has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The war is now on the brink of a wider regional conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as Hamas allies in Lebanon and Yemen.

In recent weeks, Israel has opened a new front in the war to fight Hamas ally Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. It has done this because since Oct. 7 last year, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and missiles at Israel, displacing residents of northern Israel.

Dalal said people in Wyoming and America should continue to care about the war because of its worldwide significance. He sees winning the war as the only answer to guarantee future security and peace for his country, and doesn’t believe an immediate surrender would do anything to get his son back.

“They must support Israel because Israel is part of this free world that’s fighting Islamic extremists. All they want is to perform chaos in the world,” Dalal said. “All they want to do is eliminate the Israeli state and if they succeed doing that they will come after you. They will come after the United States.”

Mantaka believes the war is an example of how radical religious extremism can spawn violent terroristic behavior.

“I’m talking about both sides,” he said. “We need to be afraid of the radical, the radical religious Jews and the radical Muslims, teaching their kids from day one to hate, to hate the other side.”

Meanwhile, they remain in Cheyenne a half a world away desperate for news and an end to the war.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.