Testimony of the brother, Nahum Azaria:

We immigrated to Israel on January 15, 1951 from Iraq (Kurdistan). For three months, we resided in the Mahane David transit camp. Then they moved us to the Kabri transit camp. Galila Azaria, our sister, was born on August 9, 1952. When she was 10 months old, the nurses from the transit camp clinic paid a follow-up visit regarding the girl’s development. They told my parents that Galila was sick and needed to be taken to Rambam Hospital. My parents went to Rambam even though Galila felt well except for a mild cold. She was hospitalized in the children’s ward. According to my parents, she felt well in the first two days, during which they were constantly by her side. On the third day, when they came to visit, Galila wasn’t in her bed and they were told that she had passed away and had been transferred to the cemetery in Kfar Samir (Mahane David transit camp) for burial. My parents didn’t know Hebrew. For two weeks they scrambled between Rambam Hospital and the cemetery to find out where Galila was buried. At the cemetery, they were told that she was not buried there. For many days, they sought answers regarding Galila’s disappearance, but they did not find out anything. Apparently, she was kidnapped from Rambam Hospital and someone took advantage of my parents' innocence and their lack of knowledge of the Hebrew language to commit such an unjust act.

At age 17, Galila received a military draft order, which we returned to the enlistment bureau.

In the 1970s, my parents arrived once more to the same cemetery, where members of the Kurdish community were buried. They spoke with those responsible for the Hevra Kadisha burial society of Iraqi and Kurdish communities, who told them that there was no evidence that Galila was buried there. After some years, my parents passed away (my mother, Narges, in 1994 and my father, Hanania, in 2003).

In 2001, I turned to the records office at Rambam Hospital to get information about Galila’s hospitalization. On December 31, 2001, I received an answer—that no records “of the above name” could be located. [Here Nahum Azaria attached a photocopy of the hospital’s response- Hebrew].

On November 11, 2001, I turned to the Ministry of the Interior. Their answer was that Galila ceased to be a resident of the country on July 1, 1963. [Here Nahum Azaria attached a copy of the letter - Hebrew].

Given how these events unfolded, we have no doubt that Galila was kidnapped from Rambam Hospital and that the hospitalization was premeditated to allow for her abduction. It is important for us to publicize the story and to be included in the Affair, along with the other Yemeni, Mizrahi and Balkan families.