A “heroic” Israeli couple murdered by Hamas militants in their home managed to save their twin babies by hiding them in a concealed shelter.
Itay and Hadar Berdichevsky had just seconds to react when they heard gunmen trying to smash down their front door.
The couple, both 30, fought with them but were shot dead during the assault.
Gali Dagan, the Israeli ambassador to Colombia, revealed the 10-month-old twins were miraculously found and rescued by Israeli soldiers after being left alone for more than 12 hours.
Mr Dagan said: “Imagine the horror. Two terrified parents doing everything they can to save their children, who are now orphaned.
“Blessed be the memory of these heroes.”
The Berdichevskys are among at least 900 people who have died in Israel since Saturday’s attacks, including 260 at the Supernova music festival near the Gaza Strip. Authorities in Gaza say more than 680 have been killed in the territory.
More than 10 Britons are presumed dead or missing in Israel.
Nathanel Young, 20, a Briton serving in the Israeli Defence Services, and Bernard Cowan, 57, who grew up around Glasgow, were killed.
Jake Marlowe, 26, from Potters Bar, who went to the Jewish Free School in north London like Mr Young, is believed to be missing.
British photographer Dan Darlington and his German girlfriend Carolin Bohl are feared to be dead.
A post from Mr Darlington’s sister Shelley on social media said that he had been “murdered” at Nir Oz, a kibbutz in the south of the country.
She said: “Only days before he was riding his bike, laughing, taking photos of sunsets and enjoying life’s simple pleasures in our beautiful kibbutz.
“He was meant to leave for Tel Aviv the night before but decided to stay one more day to explore the kibbutz with his friend - a decision that has irrevocably changed all our lives forever, and one that cost him his life.
“At this stage, we do not have concrete details or any official information on what exactly happened to them both. Our community has been destroyed. My family are in contact with the embassy and Israeli officials to try to recover his body and bring him home to the UK.”
Meanwhile, award-winning artist and filmmaker Sharone Lifchitz, from north London, is concerned for the safety of her elderly parents taken from their home close to the border with Gaza.
Also worried is Noam Sagi, from London, whose 74-year-old mother vanished from the same community.
The Israeli Army entered Ada Sagi’s property and found blood stains - but no sign of the grandmother-of-six.
Mr Sagi said: “It’s somehow completely surreal, sounds like a horror movie, it’s hard to compute.”
Meanwhile, horrific video showed the moment an Israeli mother and her two young sons were dragged screaming from their home near the Gaza border by Hamas before disappearing.
Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, was hiding in a safe room with her husband Yarden, their nine-month-old Kfir and three-year-old Ariel when it was invaded on Saturday.
Armed with his small pistol, Mr Silberman-Bibas attempted to defend his family and their home in Nir Oz.
He texted relatives: “I love you all” with militants firing semi-automatic weapons outside their window, according to reports. Half an hour later, he ominously wrote “They’re coming in’, before communication ceased and the family has not been heard from since.
Mrs Silberman-Bibas’s parents Yosi and Margit Silberman, in their late 60s, are also missing and feared abducted.
Later, a video emerged showing distraught Mrs Silberman-Bibas clutching her two children as they are kidnapped, with no sign of her husband. Terrified bystanders scream: “She has a baby.”
Separately, a British family with a ten-day-old baby recounted their horror after hiding in a safe room as Hamas gunmen burnt down their house while ransacking their village.
Deborah Mintz, originally from Romford, took cover for six hours with her grandson Kai and his parents Aimee and Uriel Labban in Nirim, just over a miles from the Gaza border.
She told BBC Breakfast: “We can’t believe what we went through. We were very lucky there was a rocket siren at 6.30am which allowed us to go into the secure room. My daughter was looking at the camera through her phone when she screamed: ‘They’ve entered the house’.
“They were firing at the steel door of the safe room. They cut off the electricity. And when they saw we weren’t coming out, they set fire to the house. One dog burned to death screaming.
“The smoke came under the door, and for six hours, I don’t know how we survived.”
They eventually escaped through a window when the militants moved away.
