TEL AVIV – Israelis searched Sunday for relatives who were either taken hostage or missing after Hamas’ brutal attack on the country a day earlier. Dozens of people gathered at a makeshift center in Tel Aviv to gather all possible information and deposit DNA samples to aid the search.
Families sat on seats in a nondescript lobby or waited outside, where volunteers handed out snacks and drinks in the heat.
Sisters Inbal Albini (55) and Noam Peri (40) were in the center looking for traces of their father Chaim Peri (79) and Albini’s half-brother, British-born Daniel Darlington (35). They asked for their names to be shared to make searching easier.
“Terrorists broke into the house, looked for people and then took him away,” Peri told CBS News. She said her mother was also in the house and witnessed her father being taken away.
People flee to an emergency shelter as sirens are heard in Tel Aviv, Israel, on October 7, 2023. AMIR LEVY/Getty Images
Ablini said her half-brother Darlington was in Israel visiting a friend. She said he grew up in Britain and had Israeli citizenship through his mother.
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“I spoke to him around eight or nine in the morning and nothing since then,” Albini told CBS News. “He was staying at a friend’s house. The friend told him not to go out, to lock all the doors and windows and to stay there. And that was the last time they spoke. The boyfriend wasn’t home.”
The Israeli government press office said on Sunday that over 100 people had been taken hostage by Hamas. Among the missing were US citizens, including 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who lives with his family in Jerusalem but was born in California.
He was among dozens of people taking part in a nighttime rave in the desert of southern Israel, not far from the Gaza border, when Hamas militants stormed the site.
His father, Jonathan Polin, told CBS News on Sunday that Hersh sent two short messages to his parents on Saturday morning when the attack began. The first just said “I love you” and the second just said “I’m sorry.”
Among those missing is 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He lives with his family in Jerusalem but was born in California. Courtesy of the Goldberg-Polin family
“He was dismissed [Israeli] Army at the end of April. “Lies to travel, music and festivals,” said the father. “He is now working as a medic and waiter to save money for his big trip to India in December.”
Major General (res.) Israel Ziv, former head of the IDF’s Operations Directorate and former commander of the Gaza Division, would not clarify the number of Israeli nationals missing or suspected of being held by Hamas.
“These are big numbers,” Ziv said at a news conference. “Very high numbers.”
Asked how Israel would protect Israeli hostages in Gaza in a counterattack on the densely populated Palestinian territory, Ziv said the army would have to find a balance.
Members of the Israeli security forces walk along a rubble-strewn street in Tel Aviv after it was hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
“This is of course a problem, but we have to do both: on the one hand, deal with the hostages and do our best to rescue and release them,” Ziv said. “On the other hand, releasing Hamas is not an option. Israel must do everything it can to completely destroy Hamas. We’ve seen who they are – taking children and old women hostage – so how can we make peace?”
Ziv said the hostage crisis changed the situation for Israel.
“If it was just the attack, you could call it a military act. But what they did to the hostages, knowing that our value for human life is different than what they see, has brought us to the point of saying no, even if we don’t have an answer. So we have to do what we have to do.”
Emmet Lyons of CBS News in London contributed to this report.
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