Families in the United States and Israel continued to pray Wednesday for their loved ones missing after the brutal Hamas attack that killed more than 1,000 people in Israel over the weekend, according to U.S. officials, including 22 American citizens .
The Americans killed included an “idealist” who saved her son from attackers’ bullets and a nurse from California who had moved to Israel to care for her parents.
White House officials said Wednesday that at least 17 Americans remained missing in Israel, although it was not clear how many were being held hostage by Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls Gaza and carried out the attacks. “We must prepare for the distinct possibility that these numbers will continue to rise,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
President Biden pledged on Tuesday to make every effort to find and rescue those missing. “I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world,” he said in a speech at the White House. Officials said they were in contact with the families of the missing and keeping them updated.
U.S. officials did not release the identity of the missing Americans, but media and family reports said they appeared to be dual citizens serving in the Israeli army and a mother and daughter from the Chicago area who had family in Israel and a 23-year-old who attended a music festival that was attacked by Hamas.
Here’s what we know about her.
Missing Americans
Adrienne Neta
Nahar Neta fought back tears at a news conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday as he described trying to calm his 66-year-old mother Adrienne on the phone. She was born and raised in California and lived on a kibbutz near the Gaza border.
His siblings were talking to her on the phone when attackers broke into their home in Be’eri, he said. They heard screaming, he added, and haven’t heard from her since.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin
Rachel Goldberg said she woke up on Saturday in Jerusalem to the sound of sirens warning of rocket fire. Her 23-year-old son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was at a music festival near the Gaza border. When she turned on her phone ten minutes later, she saw two consecutive text messages from him that said, “I love you” and “I’m sorry.”
Ms. Goldberg, who moved with her family from California to Jerusalem in 2008, has not heard from her son since. She said Tuesday that police could only tell her that his last known cellphone signal was near the Gaza border.
Judith Raanan and Natalie Raanan
The mother and daughter from Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, were visiting relatives in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz less than a mile from the Israel-Gaza border. Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein, executive director of Chabad of Evanston, said they have not been heard from since Saturday.
Natalie recently graduated from high school, Rabbi Klein said. He described her mother as someone who could converse with a wide range of people, from older community members to younger students at Northwestern University.
“This was a woman full of hope,” Rabbi Klein said. “And I know she has the resilience to overcome her tormentors.”
Itay Chen
Ruby Chen said his 19-year-old son Itay, who served in the Israeli army, had been missing since Saturday. He implored President Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to “do everything we can to end this for us as quickly as possible.”
Among the slain
Deborah Martias
In her final moments, Missouri native Deborah Martias, whose father is a longtime professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, covered her teenage son with her own body to protect him, her relatives told multiple news outlets on Tuesday.
In the moments before she and her husband Shlomi Martias were killed by attackers who broke into the family home, Ms. Martias spoke on the phone to her father, Ilan Troen, he said in a television interview. Mr. Troen said she heard breaking glass, gunshots and people speaking Arabic.
Her 16-year-old son Rotem was shot in the stomach but survived and hid until he could be rescued.
Mr. Troen described his daughter and son-in-law as “idealists.” They lived in Kibbutz Holit, a small community just over a mile from Gaza, and had sent their children to a school that taught both Hebrew and Arabic, he said, in the hope that there would be better understanding between Jews and Arabs “could change the course.” History here.”
Hayim Katsman
Mr Katsman, a peace activist, was initially believed to have been taken hostage on Saturday but was later found dead in his home on Kibbutz Holit. He had dealt with conservative tendencies and radicalism within the Zionist religious community, played bass guitar and worked as a DJ with Arabic music.
He did gardening and landscaping on the kibbutz, said his mother, Hannah Wacholder Katsman, who described him in a text message as “very hardworking and independent.” She said he was born in Israel but acquired dual citizenship in the United States.
Mr. Katsman recently completed his doctoral work at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he served as co-coordinator of an Israeli-Palestinian research group. His doctoral degree was entitled “Religious Nationalism in Israel/Palestine.” It is unusual for Israelis to refer to the region in this way, rather than simply “Israel” or “Israel and the Occupied Territories.”
Daniel Ben Sr
Daniel Ben-Senior, 34, a nurse who described her family as “angels,” was born in California but moved to Israel to help care for her parents.
She attended the music festival that was attacked by Hamas and was initially considered one of the missing. Israeli authorities told her family on Wednesday that she had been shot, said her cousin Ran Ben-Senior, who lives in New York.
“It’s a nightmare,” he said.
Reporting was contributed by Peter Baker, Colbi Edmonds, Nadav Gavrielov and Hiba Yazbek. Kirsten Noyes contributed to the research.