Hamas hostages revealed: Aussie star’s sister-in-law among 100 snatched
After being cruelly snatched and held dead or alive, Hamas’ hostages have left the world to agonisingly piece together their last moments in shocking photos and video.
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They were wanted dead or alive. Bodies, warm or otherwise, it didn’t matter. Children, grandmas. Women, men. Soldiers, civilians. The more, the merrier. A foreigner, the better. All were taken.
With Israel and Hamas refusing to publicly identify an estimated 100 to 150 abducted during the bloodthirsty massacre, families around the world are agonisingly piecing together the last moments of their missing loved ones through video and images posted online.
Shani Louk, splayed like a trophy in the back of a truck as her captors celebrated “Allahu Akbar”, has become a symbol of Schrödinger’s hostages: At once both dead and alive. Existing somewhere between hope and despair until proof of life, or death, that is yet to come.
The missing 23-year-old seen dancing just hours before video of her naked and lifeless body went viral sowed mass confusion. First, the tattoo artist appeared dead.
How could she be anything but? Then her German-Israeli family was given reports she was alive somewhere in Gaza.
“I hope that they don’t take bodies for negotiations,” said mother Ricarda Louk.
That confusion was the point.
Concerns are mounting that Hamas took corpses to deceive the world into believing the number of hostages is higher to deter retaliation and blame foreign deaths on indiscriminate Israel bombing.
Determining the number of Israeli vs. international hostages has been complicated by the dual-national nature of many Israeli citizens, muddying efforts for an accurate count.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said dual citizens are American citizens, and would be treated as such.
While 14 were missing, at last count, Kirby said there has been no “specific proof of life” shared by Hamas.
The US has sent a team of hostage rescue experts to Israel, ostensibly to advise “planning and intelligence” on a potential rescue, release, or prisoner exchange.
“We also have the ability to rapidly deploy other resources into the region,” added Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The small group of special operations forces, including members of Delta Force and SEAL Team Six, have been placed on alert in a nearby European country, two senior US military officials told Washington DC publication, The Messenger. These aren’t advisers. They’re “door kickers”, the sources said. SEAL Team Six is the unit that killed Osama bin Laden.
They may eventually be called on as Israel has no intention of negotiating the release of hostages “at this time”.
A festival that was full of life ended lifeless.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 13, 2023
This video shows only a glimpse of what hundreds of Israelis are experiencing right now. pic.twitter.com/iqQ48htc0v
“We are at war,” said Lior Haiat, spokesman of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “This is not the time for negotiation or mediation.”
The most official figure from the Israeli military has identified at least 97 hostages who were confirmed to be alive at the time of abduction.
They were captured from an area spanning 32 km from the village of Nir Oz in the south to the Erez border crossing in the north; including the massacres at the music festival and the towns of Be’eeri and Nahal Oz.
In one horrifying ordeal, three generations of one family were kidnapped at gunpoint and their abduction posted online for all to see.
The Bibas Silverman family, taken in kibbutz Nir Oz, included Shiri and her husband Yarden, their young boys Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9-months hold. Shiri’s father Yosi, who needs daily medication for Parkinson’s, and mother Margit, were also taken.
Of 106 captives visually confirmed in an analysis of public photos and videos, conducted by The Washington Post, 64 were taken into the Gaza Strip, 16 were last seen somewhere in Israel, while another 26 were held in parts unknown.
Of those being used as human shields in Gaza, 49 appeared to be civilians, of which nine were children. Another 11 appeared to be members of the Israeli military. Another four were inconclusive.
“They have been secured in safe places and resistance tunnels,” said Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas’ al Qassam Brigades.
They include 74-year-old peace activist Vivian Silver, a Canadian with deep ties to Australia through Melbourne-based charity Project Rozana, which collects critically ill Palestinian children and takes them to hospitals in Israel for treatment.
Her son, Chen Zeigen, said from his home in the US state of Connecticut that the family has not heard from her since the massacre at Be’eri, the same kibbutz where Australian Galit Carbone was killed.
Ms Silver was on the phone with family before gunfire inched closer and closer. She hid, switched to texts, and frantically kept typing as footsteps approached.
“They’re coming in. I’m hiding behind the door of the closet,” she said in a text message.
“I hear them coming. I don’t know what will happen,” she said in another. It was her last.
Footage showed hostages taken from Be’eri executed a short distance from the village, but Ms Silver was not among the bodies.
Mr Zeigen said the family is in contact with the Canadian government, but like the rest of the hostages’ families, they’ve heard nothing.
“There has been no help from Israel officials,” Mr Zeigan said. “We have been piecing together bits of information from the kibbutz. A lot of the missing people are from her neighbourhood but we don’t know much more.
“Someone has been to her house. It was completely burned down. He didn’t find any remains. And we have not been contacted about any clues.”
“I shudder at the thought of her being taken to Gaza, especially with all the kids and elderly people. I just don’t know … I have no words.”
Israeli-Australian actor Dan Mor, of Underbelly fame, holds grave concerns for his sister-in-law Moran Yanai, who appeared in a distressing video begging for her life in front of Hamas militants.
Ms Yanai, 40, was snatched from the Supernova festival where she had been running a jewellery stall.
She called her father to say “they were being shot at”, Mor told 9News, then later spoke to her mum “saying that they’re hiding, they’re being shot at.”
The family then lost contact with Ms Yanai.
“Please help us, we are in pain, a pain that is unbearable especially alone,” Mor wrote on Instagram.
“Help us share and call for international community intervention. This is the only chance, maybe still existing, to save Moran and all the innocent people trapped in this nightmare.”
At least 23 countries other than Israel have citizens missing who are feared to have been taken hostage, including the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Philippines, Thailand and Mexico.
Jordan Roman-Gat, a 36-year-old German-Israeli, was kidnapped with her husband and young child in Be’eri before they escaped. But after being separated again, her family fears she was recaptured.
Ditza Heiman, 84, who escaped the Nazis on the famous “Kindertransport” to the UK during World War II, settled at the Nir Oz kibbutz only to be captured by Hamas.
Yaffa Adar, 85, was one of the first hostages to have her capture broadcast around the world as four armed men took her to Gaza on a golf cart.
Noa Argamani, 26, is a Chinese-born Israeli kidnapped from the music festival on the back of a militant’s motorbike screaming, “Don’t kill me!” as her boyfriend was led away in handcuffs.
Of the foreigners captured, those with an American passport may be the best, if only, hope for any of hostages if those “door kickers” step in its citizens, which the US has not yet committed to doing.
They include 21-year-old Omer Neutra, a New York Knicks fan who grew up on Long Island. After a gap year in Israel in 2020, he volunteered to join the Israeli Military.
“Then all hell broke loose, and we haven’t spoken to him since,” his mother, Orna Neutra, told The New York Times, which confirmed the identities of at least seven Americans feared captive.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, moved from California to Jerusalem in 2008. He has not been seen or heard from since the music festival when he sent his mother two consecutive text messages: “I love you”, and “I’m sorry”.
Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, who had just graduated high school, were visiting from Chicago when they disappeared less than a mile from Gaza.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, was a massive Red Sox fan and father of two. He hid his pregnant wife and two children in a kibbutz bomb shelter and locked its armoured door. Father Jonathan Dekel-Chen said his son was among the first to warn villagers and fight off attackers “for hours” to protect his family. His phone was traced to Gaza.
Adrienne Neta, 66, was born and raised in California before moving to a kibbutz in Israel. Son Nahar Neta said she has not been heard from since terrorists broke into her home in Be’eri, where 10 per cent of the village’s population was killed.
Itay Chen, 19, was serving in the Israeli Army when he went missing during the first day of the attack. Father Ruby Chen pleaded with US President Joe Biden. “Make this end for us as soon as possible,” he told the Times.
The end, one way or another, is on the clock. No demands have been made for the hostages. As Israel pounded Hamas positions, the spokesman for Hamas’ al Qassam Brigades revealed their true purpose: one would be killed for every civilian home destroyed.
“And we will be forced to broadcast this execution,” he added. “It is a final warning and it is a final ultimatum”.
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