{"id":2106,"date":"2023-10-09T15:51:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T19:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/how-hamas-took-150-israelis-hostage\/09\/10\/2023\/"},"modified":"2023-10-09T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T19:51:12","slug":"how-hamas-took-150-israelis-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/how-hamas-took-150-israelis-hostage\/09\/10\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hamas Took 150 Israelis Hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gaya Kalderon last heard from half her family at 8:26 a.m. on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey are here,\u201d her sister, Sahar, 16, wrote in a text message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWho is?\u201d Gaya, 21, replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe\u2019re hiding from them,\u201d Sahar said. \u201cWe left the house.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhere are you?\u201d Gaya said. \u201cWhere are you going?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was no reply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It wasn\u2019t until Sunday that a terrified Ms. Kalderon saw any sign of her missing relatives, on social media. A video appeared of an Israeli child being shoved down a path by Palestinian militants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI am looking on Instagram and I see a video,\u201d Ms. Kalderon recalled. \u201cAnd it\u2019s my brother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Erez, 12, and four other members of the Kalderon family are feared to be among an estimated 150 Israelis, many of them civilians, taken hostage by Palestinian militants during the broadest invasion of Israeli territory in 50 years. About 800 other Israelis were killed, according to a government statement.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-79elbk\" data-testid=\"photoviewer-wrapper\">\n<div data-testid=\"photoviewer-children\" class=\"css-1a48zt4 e11si9ry5\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span aria-hidden=\"false\" class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Erez and Sahar Kalderon. They are feared to be among an estimated 150 Israelis taken hostage by Palestinian militants.<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">via Kalderon family<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hostages were seized from homes in towns along Israel\u2019s border with Gaza \u2014 including the Kalderons\u2019 small village of Kibbutz Nahal Oz \u2014 as well as from military bases and an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/08\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-attack.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">enormous outdoor dance party<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They include civilians, soldiers, people with disabilities, children, grandparents and even a 9-month-old baby. The hostages are also believed to include at least one Palestinian resident of Israel, a bus driver who spent the night near the outdoor party after driving Israelis there, his family said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The capture of so many Israelis by Palestinian militants has taken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncharted territory \u2014 not only in the sheer number of hostages, but also in the dire threats Hamas is making against them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday night, the Hamas military wing warned that it would execute a civilian hostage every time an Israeli airstrike hits Gazans \u201cin their homes without warning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, gunmen there have kidnapped a handful of Israelis, including an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, whose capture shook Israel deeply. He was freed in 2011, but only after prolonged negotiations and the release of around 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The capture of a much larger number this weekend \u2014 and the fact that so many civilians were abducted \u2014 makes the standoff even more unpredictable and volatile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Already, Israel has responded to the deadly assault by Hamas with a counterattack on the remaining gunmen inside Israel and an unusually intense series of strikes on Gaza, killing a total of about 687 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the presence of so many Israelis in Gaza means that Israel risks killing its own citizens by doing so. On Monday, Hamas said that four Israeli hostages had been killed in an Israeli strike, though the claim could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then on Monday night, the Hamas military wing issued its threat to execute hostages if the strikes on Gaza continued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas may have hoped that taking dozens of captives would ease its chances of pursuing a broad prisoner exchange with Israel, said Eyal Hulata, who served as Israel\u2019s national security adviser until January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But for Israel, in the throes of one of the worst disasters in its history, now is not the time to even consider such an exchange, Mr. Hulata argued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Hulata allowed that some Israeli captives might be killed in an ongoing Israeli offensive. But that would likely be Hamas\u2019s responsibility for \u201cplacing them as human shields,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI want to bring everyone home. But we cannot do that as long as the other side thinks they can get away with this,\u201d said Mr. Hulata.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the past, Egypt and Qatar played key roles as mediators between Israel and Hamas as the two foes negotiated over captives. But for now, the sides were only \u201cat the stage of passing messages along,\u201d rather than direct talks to free prisoners, said Yaron Bloom, a veteran Israeli intelligence official who served for five years as the country\u2019s point person for captured and missing Israelis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy assessment is that they are passing along this message: Hamas is responsible, and that if one hair on the heads of those elderly, women, babies, soldiers is touched \u2014 Israel will go ballistic,\u201d Mr. Bloom said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yoni Asher\u2019s nightmare began early on Saturday morning during a phone call with his wife, Doron Asher Katz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whispering, Ms. Asher Katz said that she, her mother and their two small daughters were trapped inside her mother\u2019s safe room in a village near the Gaza border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cShe told me, \u2018There are terrorists inside the house,\u2019\u201d Mr. Asher recalled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then came worse news: Ms. Asher Katz\u2019s mother\u2019s life partner, Gadi Moses, had left the safe room to try to reason with the intruders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cShe said, \u2018they left \u2014 and they took him with them,\u2019\u201d Mr. Asher said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Asher, 37, hoped that at least his spouse and children would be safe. But then the phone lines went dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the last time Mr. Asher heard from his wife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tracking her cellphone remotely, he saw that the device was taken on Saturday to southern Gaza, suggesting that she, too, had been kidnapped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then, he said, a video circulated on social media of abducted Israelis being driven through Gaza, bundled into the back of a pickup truck by armed gunmen. In the video, he said, a gunman attempts to spread a kind of blindfold over a woman\u2019s head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Asher said he recognized the woman. It was Doron, his wife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His daughters Raz and Aviv, 5 and 3, and his mother-in-law, Efrat Katz, 67, were squashed alongside her, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI can\u2019t sleep \u2014 I\u2019m living outside my own body,\u201d said Mr. Asher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI have two little babies, two little girls,\u201d he added. \u201cThese little babies should not kept held or kept by terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A few streets away on the same kibbutz on Saturday, Yarden Bibas, 36, and his wife Shiri, 30, also fled to the safe room in their home. Mr. Bibas was armed with a small pistol, he texted his family, while militants fired automatic weapons outside their windows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI love you all,\u201d Mr. Bibas wrote. And then, 30 minutes later: \u201cThey\u2019re coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The messages stopped.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Later, their family said they saw footage circulating on social media showing Shiri and their two brightly red-haired children \u2014 one of them just 9 months old \u2014 imprisoned by Palestinian militants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was no sign of Mr. Bibas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His parents, Yossi Silberman, a artist who worked various jobs around the kibbutz, and his wife, Margit, a kindergarten teacher who suffers from Parkinson\u2019s disease, also remain missing and are feared to have been abducted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI just hope that they are alive, and that they are together. And I want them home, with me, so I can hug them tightly again,\u201d said Yifat Zeiler, the couple\u2019s niece, sobbing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe feel that those responsible don\u2019t know what to do, because this is a situation we\u2019ve never been in before. That\u2019s the feeling in Israel,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s a catastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Patrick Kingsley<!-- --> reported from Jerusalem and <!-- -->Aaron Boxerman<!-- --> from London. Natan Odenheimer contributed reporting from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/09\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-hostages-israel-gaza.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gaya Kalderon last heard from half her family at 8:26 a.m. on Saturday morning. &ldquo;They are here,&rdquo; her sister, Sahar, 16, wrote<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/how-hamas-took-150-israelis-hostage\/09\/10\/2023\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}