“We are in the clouds. “No glimmer of hope,” Mr. Forti, Nir’s father, can no longer say. Each of his sentences remains suspended, just as he and his wife have been on probation since their son’s disappearance. Kidnapped by Hamas? Died? After more than 10 days of waiting, there is still no sure answer to this question. There has been no news about the Italian-Israeli Nir Forti (30) since October 7th. He was at the rave on the Gaza border when Hamas men arrived and carried out a massacre. With him was his girlfriend, 25-year-old Israeli Shai Regev. They had always imagined the Forti family together, but in the last few days a tragic discovery occurred. “His parents informed us about Shai’s death. We went to his funeral last Sunday. Nir and Shai had been together for a year. We knew her well…” the voice chokes again. The pain is too great. The young woman’s death leaves her in despair. The two spent days searching all the hospitals, looking for Nir in the faces of all the injured.
The family, originally from Trieste, has always lived in Israel with their son. The young man is originally from Omer, 10 kilometers east of Beer Sheva, and moved years ago to Tel Aviv, where he works as a sales manager at TytoCare, a healthcare company. The last time his parents heard from him was at 8 a.m. that Saturday. His mother called him when the rocket fire began. He fled to a friend’s kibbutz. In a second phone call, Nir said he was stopped by police. Only later did family members realize that the men in uniform were actually Hamas terrorists. After that phone call, they never heard their son’s voice again. They managed to talk to a friend. He said Nir was shot and wounded in the upper chest.
Then the darkness. “We spoke to everyone who could help us. Foreign Minister Tajani promised us that he would do everything, but unfortunately there is no news so far,” the father added. During these days of waiting, the two parents also brought their DNA to the crisis team for possible detection. This acknowledgment of their son’s body that they hope they never have to do.