For its surprise attack on Israel, Hamas used the weapon of hostages. "That's what scares us the most," said Joëlle, a French-Israeli woman barricaded in her home in Ashdod, about 7 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, on Saturday evening. Fighting was still ongoing Sunday to free captured Israelis. How many are there? The Israeli government speaks of "more than 100 prisoners". Who are they? Military and civilian.
Throughout the weekend, the media broadcast the testimonies of Israelis searching for their missing relatives. Some said they had seen them in videos of Hamas hostages in Gaza circulating on social media. Many of the missing were attending an open-air music festival near Kibbutz Reim, near the Gaza border, at the time of the attack.
"I saw Noa in the video, distraught, terrified"
Among those festival-goers were 25-year-old Noa Argamani and her partner Avinatan Or. A video shows them being forcibly taken away by a group of men, he on foot with his hands tied behind his back, she on a motorbike, screaming and begging. Behind them, smoke blackens the sky.
Avinatan's brother, Moshe Or, identified them in the footage. "I saw Noa in the video, distraught, terrified, I can't imagine the panic that gripped her when she was taken away on that motorcycle," he told CNN's Channel 12 news channel. He added that he knew of "five or six people" present at the Nova Festival who were also missing.
Noa was partying in the south of Israel in a peace music festival when Hams terrorists kidnapped her and dragged her from Israel into Gaza.
Noa is held hostage by Hamas.
She could be your daughter, sister, friend.#BringBackOurFamily pic.twitter.com/gi2AStVdTQ
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 7, 2023
Distraught, Noa Argamani's father spoke to an Israeli television channel. "I was hoping it was a mistake, that it wasn't true. (...) And then, at the hospital, a guy asked me if I wanted to see the video. I said yes. I saw that it was Noa, for sure. She was so petrified, so scared," he said, tearful.
In another video, later released and unauthenticated, the Israeli woman is filmed sitting on a bench, drinking water. "We managed to locate his phone, it's somewhere in Gaza," Amir, his roommate, told Le Parisien. He met the young woman during a trip to India last year. "Everyone loves her, she has a great personality. She always takes care of others," he says, describing the data science student at Ben-Gurion University.
"My daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German, has been kidnapped"
Shani Louk, 22, a German and Israeli national, was also present at the music festival. It is his partially naked body that is reportedly seen in a propaganda video circulated on social networks. She lies unconscious, on her stomach, in the car of armed men parading by, her fist raised. Her face is hidden by her very long brown hair. It's impossible to know if she's alive.
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Her cousin immediately identified her. "We recognized her by her tattoos and her long dreadlocks," he told The Washington Post. Shani Louk's mother posted a video, in which she asks for help. "This morning, my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped along with a group of tourists by Palestinian Hamas in southern Israel. (...) I'm asking for help, for news. According to Der Spiegel, Shani's parents were informed by their daughter's Tel Aviv-based bank that her credit card had been used in Gaza.
The mother of Shani Louk, the woman whose body was seen on video in the back of a pick-up truck driven by Palestinian terrorists to Gaza, released a statement earlier today.
She confirmed she had seen her daughter on the video & asked the public for help with more information pic.twitter.com/LDcPsjGHP8
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
Several German nationals, who also have Israeli citizenship, are among those kidnapped by Hamas, the German Foreign Ministry said Sunday. "To the best of our knowledge, these are people who all have Israeli nationality in addition to German nationality," according to the ministry, which did not specify the number of nationals concerned.
"There was a blanket over my little girls' heads"
Another video shared on social media shows a group of people, including children, being carried in the back of a truck at gunmen's guns. One of the fighters covers a woman's hair with a cloth. Yoni Asher told CNN that he recognized his wife, Doron, as well as his mother-in-law and two daughters, ages 3 and 5, among the hostages filmed.
💔💔 "Dear Mr Olaf Scholz: My wife Sharon with her mother—both German citizens—and my children were taken by Hamas terrorists to Gaza. I beg you... please help us... get my wife & kids out of there." —Yoni Asher, who recognized his family in a hostage video. Abducted from home. #Israel pic.twitter.com/5fRND664Xr
— 🇺🇦Paula Chertok🗽 (@PaulaChertok) October 7, 2023
His relatives were visiting his mother-in-law in Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the Gaza border. With no news of them on Saturday, Yoni Asher feared a kidnapping and geolocated his wife's phone in Gaza. Then he saw the video.
"I recognized her immediately. I saw a terrorist cover his head. There was a blanket over my little girls' heads and I immediately recognized my eldest daughter too. They were kidnapped along with my mother-in-law and her partner," he told the German newspaper Bild, adding that his wife and mother-in-law have German citizenship.
"She's my grandmother!"
On Facebook, an Israeli woman claimed to have identified her 85-year-old grandmother among the images of hostages. "That's my grandmother! Kidnapped from her home and taken to the Gaza Strip. Her name is Yaffa Adar, she is 85 years old! My grandmother who founded the kibbutz with her two hands," Adva Adar wrote on Facebook, posting a photo of an elderly woman with grey glasses sitting in a van and surrounded by fighters.
"No one talks to us, the only information we have is from the videos we have published," she said. On another Facebook profile, a man identified as Adva Adar's father also said that it was Yaffa Adar, his mother, in the photo.
Read alsoWhy the "Iron Dome" did not intercept all Hamas missiles
Images circulating on social media also show captured Israeli soldiers. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, claimed in a video that it had taken "several enemy soldiers" prisoner. The Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also said it was holding "many soldiers."