JTA – Yoni Asher’s voice was calm, but his urgency was unmistakable.
“I ask anyone who comes to Efrat Katz’s house to tell me he is there. I haven’t heard from them for four hours,” he said on Kan radio.
For Asher, “they” were his mother-in-law, Efrat Katz, as well as his wife and two daughters, ages three and five, whose names he did not mention. The last time he spoke to Katz, who lives in Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza border, she described how Palestinian terrorists took her 79-year-old husband away.
Nothing since then. Asher said he logged onto his laptop to locate his wife’s cell phone. He saw it appear in Khan Younis, a densely populated city in the south of the Gaza Strip.
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“I’m afraid she’s been kidnapped,” he said, asking the host if he could provide his own phone number to get information. “Of course,” said the host and Asher gave the number. “Again, slowly,” said the moderator.
Such calls disrupted the flow of news on Israeli radio stations as families across the country searched for information about loved ones near the Gaza border, where Hamas launched a surprise attack on Saturday morning that was unprecedented in its scale and deadly impact. The phrase “It’s chaos” was heard repeatedly, from newscasters, from families and occasionally from people caught in the raids, whispering desperately into their phones.
Israeli rescue teams evacuate a wounded person near the southern city of Sderot on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack on Israel, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and deploying ground units to kill or injure kidnap Israelis. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
Hamas fired thousands of rockets and sent intruders crossing the border starting around 6 a.m. Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath and holiday of Simhat Torah, a time when religious Jews celebrate the reading of the Torah and secular Jews gather with family Barbecues, picnics etc. meet. and celebrate.
The attackers killed more than 200 Israelis and wounded over 1,400, and the number of casualties had not yet been fully counted. They raided at least 22 villages and towns near the border.
Israeli radio reported that “dozens” of people were being held hostage by terrorists, although there was no official number. Some were taken to the Gaza Strip. In some cases, Hamas terrorists barricaded themselves in homes in Israel and held people hostage.
The radio cited eyewitness accounts of the horror of about 1,000 youths who met for a nature party at Kibbutz Re’im. They ran as they were hit by incoming fire, then saw that they were surrounded by armed terrorists who opened fire indiscriminately and threw grenades into tents.
Some of the youths made it to their cars but were chased by the terrorists; A group of teenagers reported getting out of their car on the highway before soon seeing it destroyed by an incoming missile.
It was not yet clear how many people were killed at Kibbutz Re’im and how many were missing.
“People woke up to the sound of explosions and gunfire near our tents, there was complete chaos, people were not fully aware of what they had eaten,” a survivor said on Israeli radio the night before.
“Some people escaped [in their vehicles] others fled to the orchards, some climbed trees to avoid the shots,” said the survivor. “A group of 50 people were knocked to the ground by stun grenades and then opened fire on them. I think 12 survived.”
Palestinian terrorists drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of what appears to be an Israeli soldier on Saturday, October 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud)
He described how Hamas terrorists dragged away bodies.
Israeli reservists showed up for duty, some of whom were well beyond the age that Israel requires of its soldiers. Among them was former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is 51 years old.
Officials urged civilians in the South to ensure that steel doors were securely locked when entering their sealed rooms. Kan reached a woman in a sealed room who tried to describe her situation but stopped and gasped when she heard a noise. She then hung up.
Others told of relatives waiting nine hours to be rescued. A relative described a family trapped in a sealed room on the outskirts of Kfar Aza who could hear terrorists in their home. A man said he was talking to his uncle in a border village – a terrorist threw a grenade into the house, his uncle returned fire, killing the terrorist. The family retreated to a sealed room and waited for rescue; A little girl suffered a head injury from the grenade attack.
An Israeli radio reporter described an interview he conducted with a wounded man at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba. He was traveling with his wife and child when he saw a group of about 15 motorcyclists who he assumed were enthusiasts on a trip. They pulled up next to him and opened fire, and his wife died instantly. He fled the vehicle clutching his child.
A woman cried as she asked for information about her daughter Roni Gonen and her friend Gaya Halifa, who attended the party at Kibbutz Re’im. The last time she heard from her, she could tell she was in a car. There were male voices speaking Arabic.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.