News

by Alex Oliveira

An Israeli mother and her two young daughters were among more than 100 civilians taken hostage by Hamas militants who invaded the country in a bloody lightning attack on Saturday.

Doron Asher had gone with her young daughters to visit their grandmother in the village of Nir Oz near the Gaza border over the weekend when Hamas gunmen stormed the house. Reuters mentioned.

Panicked, she called her husband Yoni in central Israel, but the phone went dead and she has not been heard from since.

“You told me terrorists were in the house,” Yoni said, and that was it.

Yoni said that by tracking Doron’s phone, her location showed that she was across the border in Gaza.

His fears were later confirmed when he saw a video on social media that clearly showed Doron and their daughters being loaded at gunpoint into a vehicle with other hostages and being led away by Hamas gunmen.

“I definitely recognized my wife, daughter and mother-in-law on some vehicle and the Hamas terrorists around them,” Yoni said.

“My two little daughters, they are only two children, and they are not even 5 years old and 3 years old. … I do not know under what conditions they are prisoners. I do not know what happened to them.”

Yoni issued a desperate plea to keep his family safe – offering himself as a hostage in exchange for their return.

“I want to ask Hamas: Don’t hurt them. Don’t hurt young children. Don’t hurt women.

“If you want me instead, I’m willing to come.”

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed since Hamas militants stormed the country on Saturday, leaving a path of bloody destruction in their wake.

Thousands were also injured.

Numerous videos have emerged showing women, old and young, being carried away screaming on motorcycles and cars and loaded into trucks and carts.

Survivors of a music festival targeted by Hamas said that the gunmen shot attendees in the legs to prevent them from escaping.

Doron is also a German citizen, according to independentHer family called on officials in the country to assist in the safe return of her and the girls.

She is not the only German-Israeli drawn into the conflict.

Shani Luke, a German tattoo artist, has been positively identified as a woman whose body was seen completely naked, thrown into the back of a pickup truck, and paraded as Hamas fighters looked on. It is still unclear whether she is alive or dead.