Six-month-old baby named Ariel is among 17 Britons missing or dead after Hamas attacks

A six-month-old baby named Ariel is among the 17 British-Israeli civilians feared missing or dead after Hamas terrorists launched their savage attack on Israeli soil at the weekend.

The tiny baby is unaccounted for after the gunmen roared towards Israel and massacred more than 1,000 Israelis.

Ariel was pictured wearing a baby grow and carrying a small ball that is nearly the size of her head during a press conference in London held by British Israelis whose family members are missing.

The small baby was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists alongside his three-year-old brother Kfir and his helpless mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, from their home close to the Gaza border. 

Harrowing video shows Shiri clinging onto her two sons before the terrorists drag the screaming family from their home in the Nir Oz Kibbutz in southern Israel.

Shiri and her little boys were pushed into armoured vehicles by Hamas fighters after their village was stormed

Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, is believed to have been abducted along with her six-month-old Ariel (right) and three-year-old son Kfir

Shiri and her husband Yarden, who was armed only with a pistol, had frantically sprinted to their safe room with their two young children as soon as they heard the gunmen trying to smash down their front door.

Yarden had texted relatives ‘I love you all’ as they sheltered, with militants firing semi-automatic weapons outside their window, according to reports. Half an hour later, he ominously wrote ‘they’re coming in’, before communication ceased.

The family has not been heard from since, and Shiri’s parents, Yosi and Margit Silberman, who are in their late 60s, are also missing and feared abducted.

Later, video emerged showing the distraught mother clutching her two children as they are kidnapped, with no sign of their father, as horrified onlookers scream: ‘She has a baby.’ 

Social media footage of Shiri sobbing as she, six-month-old Ariel and three-year-old Kfir are taken away by the militants has been met with global revolution along with comparisons between Hamas and the Islamic State.

And now, a picture of six-month-old Ariel has emerged at a London press conference held by British family members of Israeli captives.

During the press conference, two British nationals, Noam Sagi and Sharon Lifschitz, claimed Hamas terrorists ‘raped girls over their friends’ bodies’ as they carried out the ‘second Holocaust’.

Noam and Sharon spoke of how their elderly parents were torn from their beds and forcibly deported to Gaza by Hamas along with children as young as six months old, and implored governments to help in their recovery while deploring the actions of the attackers.

The small baby was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists alongside his three-year-old brother Kfir (pictured) and his helpless mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, from their home close to the Gaza border

Grandparents Margit and Yosi and parents Yarden and Shiri have not been heard from since Saturday

Sharon Lifschitz, left, and Noam Sagi sit down for a press conference of British children of Israeli hostages at a hotel in London, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Noam Sagi, 53, is a London-based psychotherapist who grew up on Kibbutz Nir Oz. His 75-year-old mother, Ada Sagi, was taken hostage on October 7. Sharon Lifschitz, 52, is an artist and academic whose parents are peace activists aged 85 and 83 and were taken hostage too 

‘I shouldn’t be here today, I was supposed to Heathrow to pick up my mum who’s coming to celebrate her 75th birthday here today in London,’ Noam, 53, said of his mother Agi Sagi, who was kidnapped when Hamas invaded Nir Oz Kibbutz. 

‘On Saturday morning, the Kibbutz where I was born and grew up, woke up to a massacre – to a second Holocaust. Mostly young kids and old elderly people. They burned the place to the ground, shot the dogs. Nothing left.’ 

He told how the families living in the kibbutz were ‘gassed, burned, slaughtered, killed and kidnapped’. 

‘People who survived the Holocaust found themselves facing another one. One of the hostages was on the Kindertransport,’ Noam, 53, said, referring to an operation to evacuate Jewish children from Nazi Germany. 

Sharon Lifschitz, 52, is an artist and academic whose parents are peace activists aged 85 and 83 and were taken hostage too. 

‘They have taken so much from our community. These are our children, our parents. My mum was taken out, disconnected from her oxygen in order to be loaded onto a motorbike… You have to be a special sort of person to take an 85-year-old out of her bed don’t you?’ Sharon asked tearfully.

‘I have many friends, many Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus. I don’t care, let’s come together, bring these children home,’ she said.

‘My father would say, I’m 83, I’ve had a great life, don’t bother with me, bother with my neighbours’ children, babies. I ask you to bother with them too.

‘My father spent his life working for peace. I am his daughter. I ask for peace. We now need to act together to fight that hatred with love. They are not part of this war.’ 

As the conference began, the host gave an impassioned speech before handing over to Noam and Sharon.

‘Hamas… is a modern day death squad. They went door to door, snatched babies from their mothers and children from their beds and brutally, cold-bloodedly slaughtered them,’ she said.

‘Girls were raped over their friends’ bodies, many survivors were kidnapped.

‘These horrific acts were celebrated on the streets of Tehran, Gaza and even by some here in London.

‘We have never before in Israel experienced such a traumatic event, which will take years, if not generations, to overcome.

‘This is the biggest hostage crisis the world has faced in decades.’

Hamas terrorists have published a series of harrowing videos showing the gunmen dragging away screaming mothers and their young children towards waiting trucks – as was the case with Shiri. 

Among the videos was one that showed student Noa Argamini, 25, who was videoed screaming ‘don’t kill me’ as she was dragged away from the Nova festival by laughing Hamas gunmen, who had massacred 260 revellers moments earlier.

The decision to kidnap scores of women and children from their homes in Israel has caused a split among Hamas leaders, with one faction calling for the captives to be released, Middle Eastern intelligence agencies have claimed.

Student Noa Argamini, 25, was filmed screaming ‘don’t kill me’ as she was dragged away from the Nova festival by laughing Hamas gunmen

Young Israeli women was dragged by her hair to the boot of a truck by Hamas terrorists. Her clothes were drenched in blood

While the prevailing view among Hamas leaders that taking the 100 hostages would create support among the Palestinians and also be a useful bargaining chip for prisoner exchanges, several believe it was a mistake to abduct women and children, the intelligence agencies told The Times. 

Some in the leadership are concerned that because this decision has been met with global revulsion along with comparisons between Hamas and the Islamic State, it could provide legitimacy for a harder Israeli strike on Gaza.

Concerns remain high for the safety of British citizens in the region, with reports that 17 UK nationals are either dead or missing, including children.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed that another Briton died in the incursion by Hamas fighters on Saturday. Jake Marlowe, 26, is among three known to have died. He was originally recorded as missing but was confirmed dead by the Israeli embassy in London.

Rescue workers and witnesses have described horrifying scenes at kibbutz across southern Israel, including the slaughter of elderly people and finding bloody rooms crowded with massacred civilians. 

Speaking to US President Joe Biden yesterday about the Hamas atrocities, Netanyahu said: ‘We’ve never seen such savagery in the history of the state,’ nor ‘since the Holocaust,’ before going on to reference scenes of Nazi brutality against Ukrainians at Babyn Yar during World War II.

‘They took dozens of children, bound them up, burned them and executed them. They beheaded soldiers, they mowed down these youngsters who came to a nature festival, you know, put five jeeps around this depression in the soil and like Babyn Yar, they mowed them down, making sure that they killed everybody,’ he said.

‘They’re even worse than ISIS and we need to treat them as such.’

Hamas in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel – soldiers, men, women, children and older adults – and they have fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past five days.

Two Israeli kibbutz in particular – Be’eri and Kfar Aza, suffered heinous savagery at the hands of Hamas.

 Kfar Aza kibbutz is thought to be the site where the worst of the atrocities against babies occurred given its popularity with young parents and was one of the first Israeli settlements to be targeted on Saturday morning by rampaging terrorists.

It was here that Hamas gunmen, wielding assault rifles and grenades, shot dead screaming families as they begged for their lives before setting fire to their homes.

The terror began just after dawn when most of the 400 residents living there were sleeping or enjoying their breakfast.

The first wave of 70 terrorists had roared towards the quiet kibbutz on motorbikes after tearing through the border wire a mile away, while others paraglided over Israel’s unsuspecting defences from Gaza.

As soon as they arrived, the heavily armed fighters attacked the compound from four directions – starting with the ‘baby quarter’ on the west side where the young families lived.

The terrorists were met by a frantic kibbutz guard, a small group of residents with military experience who were patrolling the perimeter when they saw the swarm of black figures racing towards them on their motorbikes. 

This graphic (above) shows how the horrifying Hamas massacre on the Kfar Aza kibbutz unfolded

Israeli soldiers remove the body of a compatriot, killed during an attack by Hamas terrorists in Kfar Aza, on Tuesday

The body of a woman is covered with a blanket in Kfar Azza

A baby’s seat and child’s dress is seen covered in blood in the aftermath of a Hamas attack 

They – like the Israeli military and government – were not prepared for the wave of terrorists firing streams of bullets at them. The small security squad tried in vain to protect their neighbours, but they couldn’t hold the terrorists off and they were killed in the intense fighting. 

The ruthless Hamas gunmen moved quickly through the kibbutz, first killing a 90-year-old grandmother who had been sitting on her porch when the terrorists arrived. They dragged the terrified pensioner into her living room and shot her twice in the head.

Families were woken to the terrifying sound of gunfire and voices outside their homes. Terrified parents ran to their sleeping children and plucked them out of their beds and cots before bundling them into safe rooms or cupboards.

Among those parents were Itay and Hadar Berichevsky, both 30, who knew they only had mere seconds to react when they heard the gunmen trying to smash down their front door, knowing that if they didn’t, their children would never have a future.

The terrified parents frantically put their two 10-month-old twin babies into a hidden shelter moments before the Hamas terrorists stormed into their home and shot dead the young couple. 

The terrorists then moved systematically from home to home, blowing open some front doors with their rocket-powered grenades before unleashing a hail of bullets at the men, women and children living there indiscriminately. Entire families had been handcuffed before they were shot point blank one by one, soldiers said.  

It would later emerge that as many as 40 babies and young children were massacred in the kibbutz, some of them beheaded, according to Israeli soldiers who spoke to Israeli news channel i24. Harrowing images from the scene show a baby’s car seat covered with blood, her small bloodied dress lying next to it.

The Hamas gunmen set fire to several homes in the often quiet kibbutz in a sick attempt to force the families out so that they could gun them down as soon as they reached their garden. 

This is a breaking news story, more to follow…