"Everything I have in my life - my family - is missing," Gaya Kalderon tells Sky News.

"I'm terrified from the photographs and can't believe my eyes. It feels like a horror movie that would never come true. But it did."

Gaya, who is 21, lives in Tel Aviv. Much of her family is in Nir Oz, situated in the south of Israel.

On Saturday morning, Hamas swept into the village.

"I was terrified to wake up on Saturday morning and receive messages like 'the terrorists are in my bedroom' and my 16-year-old sister writing to me: 'I'm so scared.'"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbez-juyHbQ

Her father, Offer, her sixteen-year-old sister, Sahar, and her brother, Erez, 10, were abducted from their homes by Hamas.

"I don't know what happened to my father that raised me or my young siblings that I tried to protect my whole lIfe. And now I can't do anything."

Israel is reeling from the attack.

Beyond the immediate suffering, it is a huge psychological shock, both in terms of the people taken captive and the death toll.
But the Israeli death count over the last few days is something that the nation has simply not seen before.

It is the upending of a world-view, something that will inform the Israeli response over the days to come.

So too will the hostage-taking - a violation of international humanitarian law - by Hamas.

Sky News has been verifying videos of abductions.

They show similar tactics: gunmen going house to house in villages, searching for civilians. In some, they use power drills to take doors off the frames.

Once they have their captives, they speed away across the desert - presumably to Gaza.

These are snatch and grab raids against a civilian population.

Noa Argamani is a 25-year-old student who was attending a music festival near Re'im, also in the south.

https://news.sky.com/story/terrorists-are-in-my-bedroom-the-haunting-messages-helpless-relatives-received-after-hamas-abductions-12980295

A video shows Noa being bundled onto a motorbike - a friend of Noa confirmed to Sky News that it is her on the bike.

She reaches out beseeching hands to a companion, also being led away, and says to her captors: "Please don't kill me."

'I couldn't offer her a hand'

A subsequent video appears to show her sitting down, drinking water. We don't know where.

Her father, Yakov Argamani, spoke afterwards.

"What can I say? All my life, since she was born, I tried to protect her, and hug her, and support her, and love her," he said.

"And here at this difficult moment, even to cheer her up, I couldn't offer her a hand."

As with the number of dead, the captive Israelis has double significance.

The first is tactical. What does it mean for any military operation in Gaza, from airstrikes to potential troops on the ground?

How are they to be rescued, or are they to be swapped for Hamas prisoners.

But the second is again psychological: the pain caused to family members taken, the idea that no Israeli going about their normal life is really safe.

All of that will be part of Israel's ongoing response.

As Gaya tells Sky News: "I just want my family back and wish my country will bring them back home."

H

This could go two ways; one, the situation leads a BBOG level of awareness where the world focuses on recovering abductees. A second possibility is it’ll lead to a 9/11 retaliatory stance which will lead to decades-long attacks. One side will wave the white flag eventually. I know it will be Hamas after all is done. Six years later, things will devolve again.

Israel should also start killing civilians as well. All Muslims are terrorists

Useless Muslims calling TERRORISTS militants....

The same thing tgey do in Nigeria.... They tag peaceful protesters TERRORISTS.

I can't believe they are even filming this war crime. Hope the boy is alright.

AbujaBlue:
I can't believe they are even filming this war crime. Hope the boy is alright.

Absolutely. He would be one of their highest value hostages. Hope he stays strong.

More like US, UK and France warn, we all know Israel cannot defeat Hamas without them...

That has been the case for decade..

Hama's killed families and babies in village massacre

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67050350

I hope this isn't a tale of things to come for current hostages.

Talks of back channel negotiations between Israel and Hamas about women and child hostages. I'll believe it when I see it.

Israeli woman has 'no tears left' after family missing, brother abducted

TEL AVIV, Oct 10 (Reuters) - A 21-year-old Israeli woman said she was in despair and had "no tears left" after her father, sister, grandmother and cousin went missing on Saturday after Hamas militants attacked their kibbutz and video emerged showing her 12-year-old brother being taken by gunmen.

Gaya Kalderon, speaking from Tel Aviv, begged for the safe return of her family, taken from houses in Nir Oz kibbutz.

"We just need them back. It doesn't matter that we don't have a home anymore, it is all burned, I just need them back," she said.

Kalderon said she was woken in Tel Aviv by sirens on Saturday morning, as Islamist Hamas gunmen crossed from Gaza and began their rampage through towns in the deadliest attack in Israel's history. A friend then told her that Hamas had entered the kibbutz.

She called her family to ask if they were ok. They told her they were not and that they did not know what was happening. In a messaging app group for her family her younger sister then wrote "Mom I love you."

"I knew it is probably because she knows it is the end or something," said Kalderon, adding she had protected her 16-year-old sister her whole life.

Video emerged on social media in which Kalderon said she can see her younger brother Erez being taken away by gunmen. She sees them pinching him and he flinches.

"It was so hard to watch... I never felt like this, I don't even have tears any more in my eyes, I can't cry because I cried so much," she said.

"He had his pyjamas on, he just woke up in the middle of the night and someone came and took him."

Her brother and sister were in a house with their father, while her grandmother and cousin were in a separate house. The whereabouts of all five is unknown. Her mother and elder brother were in another house and survived.

"I called my mom and never heard her like that. She was screaming 'where are my children'," said Kalderon.

She added that in the video Erez did not appear to have blood on him, which gave her hope that he was alive and the family were all together.

On the video a voice says in Arabic, "Those are young settlers, keep them here. Don't hurt them, 100%, be wise with people like these, this is a child."

Israeli authorities have said the death toll from the weekend Hamas attacks has surpassed 1,000.

Gaza's health ministry said Israel's retaliatory air strikes had killed at least 830 people and wounded 4,250.

Kalderon pleaded that her family not be forgotten.

"Think about my little brother, little sister, my father... I don't want to say it but it reminds me of the Holocaust."

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-womans-entire-family-are-missing-after-hamas-attack-2023-10-10/

Israel confirms 155 people being held hostage by Hamas

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/15/israel-confirms-people-hostage-hamas

Dangerous times for these hostages.

The children taken hostage by Hamas
Israel says more than 20 of the hostages taken by Hamas are children.

These are the names and stories of the under 18-year-olds who were taken - confirmed by the BBC, or credibly reported.

Ofri, 10, Yuval, 8 and Oria Brodutch, 4: The children were at Kfar Aza, a kibbutz near the border with Gaza, when Hamas attacked and they were taken.

Daphna, 15, and Ella Elyakim, 8: They were seen in a video being held in their home in Nahal Oz kibbutz by Hamas militants

Ethan Vahalomy, 12: The teenager was taken when gunmen burst into the family home.

Noam, 15 and Alma Or, 13: They were seen by a neighbour being dragged out of their home in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Naveh, 8, and Yahel Shoham, 3: Along with their parents, the two siblings were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Be’eri.

Noam Avigdori, 12: Along with her mother, and several other relatives, the teenager was taken by Hamas.

Ariel, 3, and Kfri Bibas, 9-month-old: The two children were pictured being held by their mother, Shiri Biba.

Erez Kalderon, 12: Along with several other family members, Erez Kalderon was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Natalie Raanan, 17: The teenager was visiting Israel with her mother from Illinois. They were in Kibbutz Nahal Oz when it was attacked and neighbours saw them being taken by Hamas.

Raz, 5, and Aviv Asher, 3: The children were taken along with their mother Doron while staying with relatives near the Gaza border

BBC