Israel is ready for a land operation in Gaza, scheduled to begin in the next 24 to 48 hours. And he called for the United States to provide Iron Dome missiles, small-diameter bombs, machine gun ammunition and greater cooperation in intelligence sharing. The Washington Post wrote it, while the army says aircraft are continuing to bomb the Gaza Strip to “destroy the capabilities of the terrorist group Hamas.” And the US is trying to understand whether Iran is behind the attack. Hamas says it has 100 Israeli citizens among its hostages. Including army officers.
Prisoners and missing persons
The representative of the Moussa Abu Marzuk faction said this, according to Palestinian media, the Israeli reported. Shortly before, Islamic Jihad announced that it was holding 30 Israelis captive. The total number of this information is currently 130 hostages. Other sources speak of 750 missing people. Their fate remains a question mark for Israel, especially given the strong protests from the hostages’ relatives, who denounce being abandoned by the authorities. Social media is flooded with requests for information and help. Yesterday, Netanyahu appointed retired General Gal Hirsch as “detainees and missing persons coordinator” with the task of dealing with the matter with full authority. While the Army has set up some kind of crisis unit to try to locate them. The death toll is now 700. Over 2,300 were injured.
The stories
Social media is also full of photos and videos of abductions, violence and abuse of men, women and children abducted from their homes and forcibly taken to the Gaza Strip. Everyone has their own story. The videos show the cruelty of war: “This is my grandmother and she was captured and taken to Gaza,” Adva Adar wrote on social media, posting a picture of a woman abducted by terrorists who entered her kibbutz. “His name is Yaffa Adar and he is 85 years old.”
Ynetnews journalist Emily Schrader shared a video showing a family consisting of a man, a woman and two children sitting hostage on the floor of a house. The eldest daughter was killed in the break-in. “I wanted him to live. Is there a possibility that he can come back?” the little brother asks his mother. “No,” she replies. Then there is a heavy hail of bullets outside, and the two parents rush at their children and cover them with their bodies, risking their lives to protect them.
The children
In another video, an Israeli child who was kidnapped and taken to Gaza is placed among other Palestinian children who push, tease and wave a stick in his face. “Say ima, ima, ima’ (‘Mom’ in Hebrew),” say the children around him and a voice behind the camera that appears to be that of an adult. Yoni Asher reported Saturday evening that his wife, Doron Katz-Asher, and their two daughters, Aviv and Raz, ages three and five, were at their mother-in-law’s home on Kibbutz Nir Oz when Hamas carried out a raid. Using the geolocation service on his wife’s phone, he located the smartphone to Khan Younis, a densely populated city in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The rave
Dozens were kidnapped at a nighttime rave at Kibbutz Reim near the Gaza border on Friday evening. Then there is the story of Noa Argamani, a 25-year-old protagonist of a shocking video in which she is abducted by Hamas militants during the festival. The video shows her sitting on the back of a motorcycle and begging for her life. “Don’t kill me! No, no, no,” he shouts. Her friend Avinatan is also taken away by the militiamen. Also missing from the party is a British citizen, 26-year-old Jake Marlowe, a party security officer, and a young German woman Tattoo artist, Shani Louk. In a desperate video on social media, the mother pleads for help and calls for the girl’s release. “Send us news,” he says, holding up his smartphone with a photo of his daughter on it.
DNA analyses
At the missing persons center near Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, dozens of people are registering and taking DNA swabs. They are ultra-Orthodox, Arab-Israeli citizens, Mizrahi, Ashkenazi. Everyone lined up, desperately looking for a sign of hope.
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