(New York Post) Hundreds of innocent civilians, including children, are believed to have been taken hostage in Israel by Hamas — forcing the Jewish state into a desperate race to find and free them as the terror group threatened Monday to execute captives.
Israeli authorities have not yet provided specific details about the number and identities of the kidnapped victims, however, a preliminary assessment shared by one senior military official with the New York Times suggests at least 150 people have been captured.
Among them are 5-year-old Raz and 3-year-old Aviv, their devastated father, Yoni Asher, revealed Monday.
Asher’s entire world came crashing down Saturday when he recognized his girls and their mother in a video circulating on social media showing abducted Israelis being forced on a flatbed truck, surrounded by men with guns.
He had last spoken to his wife, Doron Asher Katz, 34, earlier that day when she phoned him from her mom’s place in southern Israel, according to Bloomberg.
“She told me terrorists had infiltrated the home,” he told the outlet. “The phone got disconnected.”
5-year-old Raz and 3-year-old Aviv are among the hostages being held by Hamas.Instagram/Doron Katz Asher
Noa Argamani and her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, were at a music festival near the Gaza border when gunmen attacked the site, murdering hundreds.Facebook
It’s not clear where the terrorist group is hiding the hundreds it brutally snatched. Gaza may be a tiny strip of land under heavy surveillance that’s hemmed in by the Israel Defense Force, but it remains somewhat opaque to Israeli intelligence agencies, experts said.
There’s little question, however, that those kidnapped — which also includes Israeli soldiers, elderly people, and women — are in imminent and extraordinary danger.
On Monday, Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades, the terrorist group’s military arm, chillingly declared they would begin killing their prisoners if the Israeli government continues bombing Palestinian lands.
The gunmen captured Argamani, 25, as her boyfriend looked on.Facebook
Argamani pleaded with her abductors not to kill her. They rode away shortly after.via REUTERS
“Any targeting of innocent civilians without warning will be met regretfully by executing one of the captives in our custody, and we will be forced to broadcast this execution,” said Abu Obeida, a Qassam Brigades spokesman.
“We regret this decision, but we hold the Zionist enemy and their leadership responsible for this.”
That statement brought into sobering view one of the main reasons Hamas seemed so intent on capturing innocent civilians: The leverage it could provide them.
“The cruel reality is Hamas took hostages as an insurance policy against Israeli retaliatory action, particularly a massive ground attack and to trade for Palestinian prisoners,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Palestinian militants drive back to the Gaza Strip with the body of an Israeli soldier on Saturday.AP
“Will it constrain how Israel responds?” he asked. “If the numbers are great, how could it not?”
Yifat Zailer, whose cousin’s family was kidnapped — including a nine-month-old and a three-year-old — begged the international community to do something in a gut-wrenching interview on CNN.
“All the institutions of the world should help kidnapped civilians. Please do something to force Hamas to release them alive!,” she pleaded as she broke down in tears.
“This is unprecedented — nothing like this has happened before. We need everyone’s help. We need the president of Turkey, we need the king of Egypt. We need everyone to help us! Please! I’m sorry I’m so emotional.”
Like Asher, Zailer found out her relatives had been snatched when she recognized them in a video on social media, according to the Agence France-Presse.
A man at a rally in support of Israel after the deadly attacks held up a photo of festival attendee, Shani Louk, who was kidnapped and paraded around by Hamas terrorists.ZUMAPRESS.com
In another harrowing viral video, Israeli woman Noa Argamani, 25, and her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, were kidnapped at a trance music festival held on the plains of the Negev Desert.
Many tried to run from the gunmen, who stormed the festival and murdered hundreds. At least 260 bodies were later found on the site, a grim testament to their killers’ bloodlust.
But Argamani wasn’t killed — instead, she was hoisted onto the back of a motorcycle and driven away, weeping as Or walked nearby with his hands held behind his back.
