The father of two young girls feared to be taken hostage by Hamas along with their mother said it’s “the hardest thing” not knowing if they’re alive.
Yoni Asher said his wife Doron, 34, and their daughters Raz, 5, and Avivi, 3, were staying with family in Israel, close to the border with Gaza, when the Palestinian militant group carried out the deadliest attack on Israel in 50 years on Saturday.
He told the BBC that he tracked his wife’s phone, which showed she was taken into Gaza.
Mr Asher called Doron around 10.30am on Saturday and she said terrorists from Hamas had entered her mother’s house.
She, her mother and the couple’s two daughters were trapped inside a safe room in the house.
“They were in the safe, secure room then the call got disconnected. Later on, I managed to locate her mobile and it was inside Gaza,” he told the BBC.
Later that day he believed he saw his family in a video of people being loaded onto the back of a truck. In the video a woman, who Mr Asher believes is Doron, was blindfolded.
“In the video I recognised my wife and my two daughters, my two little babies," he said.
“I don’t know in what terms or what conditions they are held, but you know, the situation is getting much worse.”
Mr Asher told the BBC he wants to believe “there is some contact between the diplomats negotiating or something”, adding that not knowing more information about his family’s welfare is “the hardest thing”.
He told the New York Times that he believes his daughters and mother-in-law were squashed in the back of a truck alongside Doron.
His family was expected to return to central Israel on Saturday evening after what was supposed to be a short visit to their grandmother’s village.
They are feared to be among around 150 hostages inside Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities, most of them captured from small towns near the border on Saturday morning.
Israel said some hostages are soldiers.
Hamas said it seeks the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails — some 4,500 detainees, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem — in exchange for the Israeli captives.
Many families do not know whether their relatives have been killed, taken into Hamas captivity, or have escaped and are on the run.
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, said the country is committed to bringing the hostages home and issued a warning to Hamas, which controls Gaza.
“We demand Hamas not to harm any of the hostages,” he said. “This war crime will not be forgiven.”
At least 1,600 people have died in both Israel and Gaza since the unprecedented attacks by Hamas on Saturday.
