After being abducted to Gaza, Billy the dog was rescued from Hamas captivity and reunited with his family in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
By Rachel Avraham
After months of waiting and longing, Billie the dog was reunited this Passover with her family from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Arutz Sheva reported. According to the report, the moving reunion comes after Billie was returned to Israel by an IDF reservist named Aviad Shapira.
According to the Times of Israel, Billy ran into his arms when his unit was operating in the ruins of Rafah. “She looked me in the eye, and I, at that moment, said ‘Shalom’ — that’s what came out. She jumped onto me, I lifted her up, and I said to myself, she’s coming back to Israel with me.”
Upon returning to Israel, according to the report, he visited a local veterinarian who examined the dog. The examination revealed that the dog was wearing an electronic chip, and further inquiry confirmed that it is Billie, a three-and-a-half-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas terror attack.
The three-and-a-half-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel belongs to the family of Rachel Dancyg, the divorcée of Alex Dancyg, who was abducted to Gaza on October 7 and then killed in captivity, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, his body was recovered by ground troops in August 2024. Rachel’s brother Itzik Elgarat was also abducted from the kibbutz and murdered in Gaza. The Times of Israel noted that the family spent months looking for Billy, but feared the worst, as the only trace of their beloved pet was a bloodstain in their home.
“My brother Itzik didn’t come back. And Alex didn’t come back. And here, this little dog, survived,” Rachel told the Times of Israel, stroking Billy on her lap. “I hadn’t managed to get her into the safe room and I imagined that they’d killed her, because they killed all the dogs at Nir Oz,” she said of the terrorists who invaded the kibbutz. “But my daughter always said, ‘Mom, she’s alive’.”
“We thank, from the bottom of our hearts, the Golani Brigades reservist who insisted on taking Billy with him and returning him to Israel. Thank you to all the heroic IDF combat soldiers, you showed us light amid the great darkness,” the family said in a statement.
Various Israeli media outlets published an emotional video of the reunion of the family with Billy, who was brought to them on a leash by Shapira, his rifle slung on his back. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Rachel Dancyg is heard saying, tearfully, in the footage, as she embraces Shapira and her granddaughters caress the dog. Other footage showed Shapira sitting with Billy’s family, stroking the dog’s chin.
An official statement from Kibbutz Nir Oz said: “Dogs are a part of the family. Many of the kibbutz’s dogs, and their living owners, were kidnapped or murdered on October 7, alongside humans. The embrace that Billy received, from the entire nation of Israel, upon her return shows how much we’re all longing for, and in need of, miracles like this. The great miracle to come will be the return of the 59 hostages who are languishing in Gaza — 14 of whom are from Nir Oz.”
Photo from TIMES NOW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VCL-VfkiQs
