At least 260 dead, mostly young people, in the rave in the area of Kibbutz Reim in Israel. They were killed by Hamas militiamen in the attack carried out on Saturday 7 October. Hundreds were injured. Today, with the news of the last few hours, the picture becomes tragically clearer.
Thousands of people were taking part in the Nova Festival in the south of the country when the raid began, resulting in murders and executions. Several boys were among the hostages taken to Gaza. At the event, according to the Israeli media, many young people with dual passports and in particular American citizenship were also present. A spokesperson for Zaka, an association of volunteers who intervene after terrorist attacks and disasters, announced that up to the evening of Sunday 8 October, over 260 bodies had been recovered.
The survivor’s story: “So many hit like in a shooting range”
The videos released on social media show the different phases of the dramatic day. While young people dance at dawn, after hours of partying, on the horizon you can see the motorized hang gliders used by groups of Hamas militiamen to cross the border and arrive in the rave area. The rockets begin to fall around 6.30am.
Then, the volleys of automatic weapons, the escape of hundreds of people seeking shelter everywhere: in the desert, among cars. “We had nowhere to hide,” says Gibly, a young woman interviewed by CNN. “We fled into the bush. I have many friends who got lost there for several hours and were shot like in a shooting range. In the car we didn’t know where to go, we were afraid of meeting” the terrorists.
The hostages, German and American boys
The appeal of a German woman, Ricarda Lauk, who lives in Israel and whose daughter was kidnapped by Hamas militants, was shared on social media. ”My daughter, Shani Nicole, a German citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas while she was attending a party in southern Israel with a group of tourists – she says – I was sent a video where I was able to recognize my daughter in a private car of conscience, together with a group of Palestinians, while crossing the streets of Gaza”.
In the video message, the mother shows a photo of her twenty-two-year-old daughter. The woman launches an appeal for help and asks to receive news about her daughter, of whom she shows her passport. The young girl’s uncle, Winfried Gehr, told the Bild newspaper that Nicole, together with her boyfriend, had attended the event on the kibbutz.
It is presumed that among the people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas there are German citizens, the Berlin Foreign Ministry announced, adding that the kidnapped people all have dual Israeli-German citizenship. There are also Americans among the “dozens” of hostages held in Gaza, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer explains to CNN, without however specifying their number.
More than 24 hours after the Hamas assault against Israel, some young people who managed to escape to safety were found and rescued. The boys, who were missing, arrived in the Nativot area and were accompanied by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to a safe area.
The missing and the pain of the families
Many parents have been searching for news and information about their children for over 24 hours, in many cases without receiving a response. Representatives of Israeli families, whose loved ones have been missing since the start of the war, called a press conference yesterday morning to “demand answers”. “We demand answers,” said one man, quoted by Haaretz, whose two daughters were kidnapped by Hamas militants. “Not all the answers will make us happy. We want to return the children, the boys, the girls to their families as soon as possible.”
“We’re 48 hours into all this and some families don’t know anything,” he said again. “We don’t have to face the situation alone, the road is still long and the days ahead will be very difficult.”
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2023-10-08 20:08:00
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