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Rescued and Reunited: Dog Kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 Returns Home
Billy was taken by Hamas from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) helped reunite Billy, a dog kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with her family on Wednesday after discovering her in the southern Gaza Strip.
The three-and-a-half-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was identified via a microchip which helped reunite the animal with its owner, Rachel Dancyg. She is the ex-wife of Alex Dancyg, who was abducted by Hamas during the Oct.7 massacre and later killed in captivity. The IDF confirmed his death last year.
Rachel survived the Oct. 7 atrocities and managed to save her two granddaughters. However, her brother, Itzik Elgarat, was also abducted by Hamas and murdered in Gaza.
Months after Hamas’s onslaught, Rachel and her family continued searching for Billy, but they believed the dog had been killed after finding a blood stain in the house.
“My brother Itzik didn’t come back. And Alex didn’t come back. And here, this little dog, survived,” Rachel said after being reunited with Billy. “I hadn’t managed to get her into the safe room and I imagined that they’d [Hamas] killed her, because they killed all the dogs at Nir Oz.”
According to Israel’s Channel 12 news, Aviad Shapira, a reserve soldier in Golani’s 13th Battalion, found Billy when she emerged from the rubble after hearing soldiers speaking Hebrew.
“We had just conquered the Morag corridor in order to encircle Rafah. I went to the Namer [armored personnel carrier] and saw lovely Billie walking toward me,” Shapira told Channel 12, recounting her experience.
“She just ran up to me and jumped on me. I told myself that she would come with me to Israel and I really fought for her to come with me,” she continued.
Rachel’s family and friends were murdered on October 7.
Her dog Billy was kidnapped to Gaza.
For a year and a half, Rachel didn’t know if he was alive.
This week, an IDF reservist found him in Rafah.
Today, they were reunited.
pic.twitter.com/xfiKyGNUur
— Tamar Schwarzbard
In a statement, Rachel and her family expressed their gratitude to the IDF soldiers for bringing Billy home.
“We thank, from the bottom of our hearts, the Golani Brigades reservist who insisted on taking Billy with her and returning her to Israel,” the statement reads. “Thank you to all the heroic IDF combat soldiers, you showed us light amid the great darkness.”
A spokesperson for Nir Oz also praised Aviad and “all the heroic IDF soldiers” for bringing some hope and light to the community.
“Dogs are a family, and many of the dogs and other animals in our kibbutz were also kidnapped and murdered on Oct. 7,” the spokesperson said. “The great joy of the people of Israel in Billy’s return proves more than anything else how much we all need and wait for such miracles.”
“We still have 59 abductees in Gaza, 14 of them from Nir Oz, and we hope that the next miracle will come with the return of all of them.”
Since Hamas’s attack — in which the Palestinian terrorist group led the massacre of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 hostages — well over 100 captives have been released through negotiated ceasefire deals in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees. The Israeli military has also rescued a smaller number through special operations
There are currently 59 hostages still in Hamas’s captivity in Gaza, with over half believed to be dead. As the second phase of the ceasefire agreement was never launched, Israel resumed its military campaign in the enclave to press Hamas into freeing the remaining Israeli hostages.
The latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the ceasefire failed to make any progress, as Hamas insisted that any agreement must lead to an end of the war in Gaza, while Israel maintained it would not cease fighting until Hamas is eliminated, with the terrorist group refusing to lay down its arms.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
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