Young children and elderly grandparents were among the more than 100 hostages being held as human shields by Hamas last night.
Families have described the horror of only discovering their loved ones had been snatched by viewing chilling videos posted on social media by their gloating kidnappers.
Footage showed sobbing children and their helpless mothers being dragged from their homes and loaded into vehicles by heavily armed men before being taken to Gaza. It is feared two Britons could be among those being held after the terrorist group launched its bloody multi-pronged surprise attack.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even suggesting an elderly Holocaust survivor was among those dragged across the border into Hamas territories.
Gunmen were reported to have been going door to door to round up whole families as they sheltered from a barrage of rockets fired into settlements from Gaza.
Noa Argamani, 25, was kidnapped with her boyfriend Avi Nathan during an attack on a music festival close to the Gaza border
Sickening videos showed traumatised Israeli soldiers, overwhelmed by the surprise attack, being abused and beaten as they were paraded by their captors.
Footage also showed a ten-year-old Israeli boy being dragged towards an opening in the border’s fence by armed terrorists.
The youngster – named as Erez Kalderon – was said to be hiding in his house in Nir Oz in the south of Israel when Hamas broke in and snatched him at gunpoint. Erez’s sister Gaya Kalderon, 21, who lives in Tel Aviv, told Sky News: ‘I was terrified to wake up on Saturday morning and receive messages like ‘the terrorists are in my bedroom’ and my 16-year-old sister writing [to] me: ‘I’m so scared’.’
Meanwhile, Yoni Asher described how he was cut off from his wife Doron after she called to say terrorists had entered the home. She was visiting her mother in Nir Oz near the border with their two daughters aged two and four when Hamas attacked.
Hundreds of young people are also missing after terrorists stormed an outdoor music festival being held in the desert.
On Saturday, shocking footage showed attendee Noa Argamani, 25, crying for her life as she was snatched away on a motorcycle. Yesterday, her father broke down in tears as he admitted the family were powerless to do anything but pray for her safe return.
Unverified video shows two children sobbing on the floor of their home as they ask a man behind the camera if their older sister is dead. The young boy and girl break down as they are told she is ‘in heaven’ as their distraught parents struggle to protect them from heavy fire outside the room.
While their families pray for their safe return, prospects for the stricken hostages are bleak. Israeli military officials admitted last night that they are not planning a rescue operation akin to the famous Entebbe raid in 1976.
Instead, they are focusing on unleashing a furious retribution against Hamas bases in Gaza – meaning the captives could now be at the epicentre of one of the most devastating strikes unleashed on the territory in years.
Dragged from music festival on a motorbike
A student was filmed screaming ‘don’t kill me’ as she was dragged away on a motorcyle by Hamas thugs.
Noa Argamani, 25, was kidnapped with her boyfriend Avi Nathan during an attack on a music festival close to the Gaza border. Her tearful father Yaacov Argamani said yesterday: ‘I tried to contact her from the second we heard the rocket sirens.
‘While on the phone, her roommate contacted us and said there was a video of her on a motorcycle and she was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Noa Argamani, 25, was filmed screaming ‘don’t kill me’ as she was dragged away on a motorcyle by Hamas thugs
‘She was so scared, so frightened. I always protected her, and at this very moment I couldn’t.’
The festivites near Kibbutz Re’im turned into chaos after Palestinian terrorists began firing rockets into the crowd on Saturday.
Footage of a woman believed to be Ms Argamani emerged yesterday, apparently showing her sipping from a bottle of water at an undisclosed location.
Kidnapped with babies and their grandparents
A woman was seen being kidnapped with her children as horrified onlookers screamed: ‘She has a baby.’
The mother was later identified as Shiri who was taken with her husband, Yarden, sons Ariel, three, and nine-month-old Kfir, as well as her elderly parents Yossi and Margit. They were believed to have been snatched from Shiri’s home in Nir Oz on the border with Gaza.
The vulnerable grandmother was said to be ‘sick’ and in need of her medication.
Mum missing – but children are found
A mother is still missing after her two children that she was kidnapped with were found at the border.
Adi Vital-Kaplon, 33, was snatched by militants from her home near Gaza on Saturday with four-year-old Negev and Eshel, six months. But the children were left at the border at night where they were found by a family friend Avital, 38. Their grandfather Yondav Kaplon said: ‘From what we understand [Avital] was kidnapped, or escaped or was released, but she recognised them last night on the fence and took them back to Israel.’
He said the children were being taken to hospital ‘because Negev is slightly wounded with shrapnel in his leg that was not treated, and Eshel did not pass a medical examination’.
Adi Vital-Kaplon, 33, was snatched by militants from her home near Gaza on Saturday with four-year-old Negev and Eshel, six months
Gunmen stormed in… and then silence
Yoni Asher said he received a call from his panic-stricken wife saying terrorists had stormed into the house.
Doron Asher Katz, 34, was visiting her mother in Nir Oz near the Gaza border with their two daughters, aged two and four, when Hamas attacked.
After losing contact with her, Mr Asher saw a video of them on social media being loaded into a cart by militants. ‘I surely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart, and terrorists of Hamas all around them,’ he said.
He was able to track his wife’s mobile phone and discovered that it was in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Doron Asher Katz, 34, was visiting her mother in Nir Oz near the Gaza border with their two daughters, aged two and four, when Hamas attacked
He said: ‘My little two girls, they are only babies, they are not even five years old and three years old.
‘I don’t know in what terms they are captive. I don’t know what happened to them.’
Mr Asher has appealed directly to Hamas to not hurt his family and has even offered to exchange himself for their safe return.
Boy of ten snatched at gunpoint from his home
Disturbing footage shows a boy of ten being dragged towards an opening in the border’s fence by terrorists.
Erez Kalderon, who was snatched from his home in Nir Oz in the south of Israel by Hamas, looks terrified as he is led through the streets by the heavily armed men.
Erez Kalderon, who was snatched from his home in Nir Oz in the south of Israel by Hamas, looks terrified as he is led through the streets by the heavily armed men
His father Offer and sister Sahar, 16, were also abducted.
‘Yesterday at 8.30am messages were sent from them that the terrorists are outside their house… and they are hiding.
‘Since then their voices have not been heard,’ a message from a relative, which was circulated online, said.
Erez’s sister Gaya Kalderon, 21, who lives in Tel Aviv, told Sky News: ‘Everything I have in my life – my family – is missing. I’m terrified from the photographs and can’t believe my eyes. It feels like a horror movie that would never come true. But it did.’
The grandmothers who have vanished without a trace
Ditza Heiman, 84, was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, close to the border, and taken into Gaza.
When her family tried calling her phone a Hamas fighter answered and they have heard nothing since.
Another grandmother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, was bundled into a golf buggy at gunpoint by a group of terrorists.
Ditza Heiman, 84, was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, close to the border, and taken into Gaza
Yaffa Adar, 85, was bundled into a golf buggy at gunpoint by a group of terrorists
Her granddaughter Adva said the family lost contact with her late on Saturday evening after receiving a message from her saying she could hear fighting in the streets. They later found her home had been burned down.
‘We saw the videos showing men with guns taking her to Gaza. I cannot even start to imagine how scared she is, she’s 85, she’s sick and she has no medicine with her,’ Adva said.
‘She’s putting on a brave face, taking charge of the situation and showing her captors a glimpse of her unbreakable resolve.’
She said she felt the authorities had abandoned them, adding: ‘No one can tell us anything. We found out she was kidnapped from the videos we found on Facebook.’
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