Testimony of the brother, Eli Tammam:

I am Eliyahu Tammam. My parents Albert and Miriam Tammam immigrated to Israel from Tunisia in 1950. My father passed away. Morher is still alive, may she be blessed with a long life.

We are 12 brothers and sisters, I am the third born , and we have had a brother and a sister that were abducted.

In 1953 my eldest brother Eliyahu (I am named after him) was born to my parents. Eliyahu was born at Tel Hashomer Hospital.

When he was 40 days old, my parents held a traditional firstborn ceremony for him. After the ceremony, Eliyahu felt unwell and mother took him to Tel Hashomer Hospital. She came home and went back the next day, to breastfeed him and see him. There was nothing to see. She was told the child was dead. My parents asked to see him and the staff at the hospital said he had already been buried and there is no body, no grave and no death certificate. My innocent parents accepted the evil of the decree, and tried to move on with their lives.

I am named after Eliyahu. When I was 15 we got a recruiting order at home. It was very weird, because I was only 15 and it was too early. I did not notice that the ID number on the order was not mine, and I went to the recruitment bureau. There it turned out that it was really in the name of my eldest brother Eliyahu, who according to what my parents were told, had passed away. The recruitment bureau gave me forms to sign my parents, that it was a dead child, and that's how they closed it.

In 1959 the tragedy repeated itself with my sister Ester. Mother gave birth to her at Hasharon Hospital, in Petah Tikva.

When she was a few months old she took her for tests at the hospital, because she was not feeling well, and just like with my brother Eliyahu, when she returned to the hospital to see her, she was told the girl was dead. Here too, they did not show her the body, no burial place was given, and there is no death certificate, but my sister received a recruitment order too, and my parents had to do the same procedure with the recruitment bureau.

This unbearable loss of two babies has accompanied our family throughout the years. My mother and the whole family are deep in pain.

A few years ago we all submitted DNA samples to the database.