"I woke up at three in the morning and found the murderer washing dishes in the kitchen"

Shimon and Eti Almakis from Beersheba probably thought that this Saturday would end much like all the Saturdays of that summer. A fun nap in an attempt to pass the hot hours of the day, delicious food, and slight excitement ahead of the approaching school year for their two children. But then the knock on the door was heard. Eti, still a bit groggy from her afternoon nap, opened it and found a stranger with a pistol in his hand, and a clear message: "I escaped from prison, the police are looking for me, I just want to stay at your place, you have nothing to worry about."

The stunned Eti gathered her husband Shimon and daughter Yifat in the living room, and now everyone was sitting and looking at the barrel of the pistol of Herzl Avitan. By the end of the summer of 1988, Avitan was already one of the most famous people in Israel, though not for positive reasons. Sentenced to several life sentences for robbery and murder, he had already made a name for himself as a determined and unscrupulous criminal with at least two previous escape attempts. The last one, during the final week of the 1988 summer vacation, was arguably the most astonishing.

For the next hour, the family tried to digest the frightening situation while the escaped prisoner managed the event. He asked to close all the shutters and windows, requested something cold to drink, and tuned a radio to Galei Tzahal to monitor police efforts to catch him. At one point, Avitan pulled a banknote from his sock and gave it to the family to buy their trust and reassure them. Shimon and Eti Almakis later clarified that throughout their long and stressful stay with Avitan, he consistently made it clear that they and the children would not be harmed.

About an hour after the uninvited guest arrived, the Almakis family's young son returned home from the pool and joined the surreal scene in the living room. "We listened together to the news about Herzl's escape," Eti Almakis later said, "and when he heard that the guard he had accidentally shot was not killed, he calmed down a lot."

The hours until nightfall were spent in a way that even the word "surreal" barely describes. They ate the cholent the mother had prepared for the Sabbath, watched the news together, and even engaged in personal conversations. Herzl talked about his wife and son, the harsh treatment from prison guards, and expressed interest in the personal lives of Eti and Shimon. The climax was when Herzl scolded Eti for leaving the house door unlocked. "What would you do if some psychopath had entered here?" he asked, and immediately added, "I will not touch you for harm."

When Eti woke up in the middle of the night, she found Avitan doing dishes in the kitchen. "I told him, 'Herzl, leave it, I will do it,'" she said, but he insisted. "This is my fun," he explained to the stunned mother. "I want everything to be polished at my place. I love the feeling of home; I haven't had that for a long time."

The next morning, the saga continued. Eti was preparing lunch when Herzl Avitan announced that they were leaving. He would depart the apartment accompanied by Shimon and his young daughter. When Eti began to cry, he promised her that he had become attached to her children and would prefer to shoot himself than to harm them. Down on the street, the kidnapper and his two hostages walked a few hundred meters before Herzl stopped a taxi and ordered the driver to head toward Tel Aviv. The crowded taxi passed through several police checkpoints, but the officers, looking inside with a bored expression, did not delay them for a moment.

Following Avitan's orders, the taxi continued toward the Sharon region. A few kilometers after the Ra'anana junction, the trip ended. Avitan ordered the driver to stop near a large orchard, gave him a hundred-dollar bill, parted with Shimon and his daughter, and disappeared into the trees. He would later be captured by a special police unit at his sister's house in Hod HaSharon.