Warning: This account contains disturbing information.
When asked to depict her daughter, Jacqui Rivers Vital recalls Adi Vital-Kaploun as a fierce protector who displayed courage until the end, battling “to shield her children.”
Vital-Kaploun, aged 33, was among the eight Canadians who lost their lives in the assaults on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, a group denounced as terrorists by Canada. .
According to her mother, Vital-Kaploun was seeking refuge in the secure room of her residence on Kibbutz Holit, a communal agricultural community in southwest Israel, when Hamas insurgents breached her family’s sanctuary and launched an attack.
Vital-Kaploun’s two sons — one just six months old at the time, the other three years and nine months old — were alongside her, as mentioned by Rivers Vital.
Despite being armed with an M16 rifle obtained through her husband’s security team involvement, she was outnumbered and lacked sufficient ammunition, Rivers Vital explained.
“She did everything within her power,” she shared with CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning host Rebecca Zandbergen.
Jacqui Rivers Vital from Ottawa refers to her daughter Adi Vital-Kaploun as a lioness due to her protective actions against Hamas militants on October 7, 2023. She spoke with Rebecca Zandbergen to recount some of Adi’s story.
‘3 days of uncertainty’
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa, representing Vital-Kaploun’s family, verified her death one week following the October 7 attacks.
Rivers Vital, residing in Israel but present in Ottawa during the attacks, conversed with CBC earlier this week.
She returned to Canada for an event supporting the kibbutz and emphasized that she wants her daughter to be remembered as more than just a statistic.
“She was an individual. And she had a future,” she expressed.
During the attacks, Rivers Vital received a “red alert” through an Israeli application. This prompted her to contact her husband, who was in Israel hiding in Vital-Kaploun’s guesthouse, she recounted.
“Subsequently, I only received two voicemails. I was left in the dark,” she commented on the events involving Vital-Kaploun.
Television footage depicted militants in a location Rivers Vital recognized as Vital-Kaploun‘s kibbutz. However, she only learned of her daughter’s demise three days later.
“Three days of not knowing,” she stated.
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