Pawns of merciless terrorists: The horrifying stories of just some of the 100 hostages stolen by murderous Hamas invaders

Young children and elderly grandparents were among the more than 100 hostages being held as human shields by Hamas last night.

Families have described the horror of only discovering their loved ones had been snatched by viewing chilling videos posted on social media by their gloating kidnappers.

Footage showed sobbing children and their helpless mothers being dragged from their homes and loaded into vehicles by heavily armed men before being taken to Gaza. It is feared two Britons could be among those being held after the terrorist group launched its bloody multi-pronged surprise attack.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even suggesting an elderly Holocaust survivor was among those dragged across the border into Hamas territories.

Gunmen were reported to have been going door to door to round up whole families as they sheltered from a barrage of rockets fired into settlements from Gaza.

Sickening videos showed traumatised Israeli soldiers, overwhelmed by the surprise attack, being abused and beaten as they were paraded by their captors.

Footage also showed a ten-year-old Israeli boy being dragged towards an opening in the border’s fence by armed terrorists.

The youngster – named as Erez Kalderon – was said to be hiding in his house in Nir Oz in the south of Israel when Hamas broke in and snatched him at gunpoint. Erez’s sister Gaya Kalderon, 21, who lives in Tel Aviv, told Sky News: ‘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’.’

Meanwhile, Yoni Asher described how he was cut off from his wife Doron after she called to say terrorists had entered the home. She was visiting her mother in Nir Oz near the border with their two daughters aged two and four when Hamas attacked.

Hundreds of young people are also missing after terrorists stormed an outdoor music festival being held in the desert.

On Saturday, shocking footage showed attendee Noa Argamani, 25, crying for her life as she was snatched away on a motorcycle. Yesterday, her father broke down in tears as he admitted the family were powerless to do anything but pray for her safe return.

Unverified video shows two children sobbing on the floor of their home as they ask a man behind the camera if their older sister is dead. The young boy and girl break down as they are told she is ‘in heaven’ as their distraught parents struggle to protect them from heavy fire outside the room.

While their families pray for their safe return, prospects for the stricken hostages are bleak. Israeli military officials admitted last night that they are not planning a rescue operation akin to the famous Entebbe raid in 1976.

Instead, they are focusing on unleashing a furious retribution against Hamas bases in Gaza – meaning the captives could now be at the epicentre of one of the most devastating strikes unleashed on the territory in years.

Dragged from music festival on a motorbike

A student was filmed screaming ‘don’t kill me’ as she was dragged away on a motorcyle by Hamas thugs.

Noa Argamani, 25, was kidnapped with her boyfriend Avi Nathan during an attack on a music festival close to the Gaza border. Her tearful father Yaacov Argamani said yesterday: ‘I tried to contact her from the second we heard the rocket sirens.

‘While on the phone, her roommate contacted us and said there was a video of her on a motorcycle and she was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

‘She was so scared, so frightened. I always protected her, and at this very moment I couldn’t.’

The festivites near Kibbutz Re’im turned into chaos after Palestinian terrorists began firing rockets into the crowd on Saturday.

Footage of a woman believed to be Ms Argamani emerged yesterday, apparently showing her sipping from a bottle of water at an undisclosed location.

Kidnapped with babies and their grandparents

A woman was seen being kidnapped with her children as horrified onlookers screamed: ‘She has a baby.’

The mother was later identified as Shiri who was taken with her husband, Yarden, sons Ariel, three, and nine-month-old Kfir, as well as her elderly parents Yossi and Margit. They were believed to have been snatched from Shiri’s home in Nir Oz on the border with Gaza.

The vulnerable grandmother was said to be ‘sick’ and in need of her medication.

Mum missing – but children are found 

A mother is still missing after her two children that she was kidnapped with were found at the border.

Adi Vital-Kaplon, 33, was snatched by militants from her home near Gaza on Saturday with four-year-old Negev and Eshel, six months. But the children were left at the border at night where they were found by a family friend Avital, 38. Their grandfather Yondav Kaplon said: ‘From what we understand [Avital] was kidnapped, or escaped or was released, but she recognised them last night on the fence and took them back to Israel.’

He said the children were being taken to hospital ‘because Negev is slightly wounded with shrapnel in his leg that was not treated, and Eshel did not pass a medical examination’.

Gunmen stormed in… and then silence

Yoni Asher said he received a call from his panic-stricken wife saying terrorists had stormed into the house.

Doron Asher Katz, 34, was visiting her mother in Nir Oz near the Gaza border with their two daughters, aged two and four, when Hamas attacked.

After losing contact with her, Mr Asher saw a video of them on social media being loaded into a cart by militants. ‘I surely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart, and terrorists of Hamas all around them,’ he said.

He was able to track his wife’s mobile phone and discovered that it was in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.

He said: ‘My little two girls, they are only babies, they are not even five years old and three years old.

‘I don’t know in what terms they are captive. I don’t know what happened to them.’

Mr Asher has appealed directly to Hamas to not hurt his family and has even offered to exchange himself for their safe return.

Boy of ten snatched at gunpoint from his home

Disturbing footage shows a boy of ten being dragged towards an opening in the border’s fence by terrorists.

Erez Kalderon, who was snatched from his home in Nir Oz in the south of Israel by Hamas, looks terrified as he is led through the streets by the heavily armed men.

His father Offer and sister Sahar, 16, were also abducted.

‘Yesterday at 8.30am messages were sent from them that the terrorists are outside their house… and they are hiding.

‘Since then their voices have not been heard,’ a message from a relative, which was circulated online, said.

Erez’s sister Gaya Kalderon, 21, who lives in Tel Aviv, told Sky News: ‘Everything I have in my life – my family – is missing. 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.’

The grandmothers who have vanished without a trace 

Ditza Heiman, 84, was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, close to the border, and taken into Gaza.

When her family tried calling her phone a Hamas fighter answered and they have heard nothing since.

Another grandmother, 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, was bundled into a golf buggy at gunpoint by a group of terrorists.

Her granddaughter Adva said the family lost contact with her late on Saturday evening after receiving a message from her saying she could hear fighting in the streets. They later found her home had been burned down.

‘We saw the videos showing men with guns taking her to Gaza. I cannot even start to imagine how scared she is, she’s 85, she’s sick and she has no medicine with her,’ Adva said.

‘She’s putting on a brave face, taking charge of the situation and showing her captors a glimpse of her unbreakable resolve.’

She said she felt the authorities had abandoned them, adding: ‘No one can tell us anything. We found out she was kidnapped from the videos we found on Facebook.’

Survivors of the Israeli festival massacre that left 260 revellers dead have described running for their lives as Hamas terrorists went ‘tree by tree’ targeting anyone who was trying to flee.

On Saturday Israel suffered its deadliest attack in decades as the Palestinian militant group rampaged through the country’s towns killing at least 700 people, with dozens being abducted. 

A senior Hamas official said last night that the militant group is holding more than 100 people captive following its attack on Israel. The attack has sparked fierce fighting killing and wounding thousands of people on both sides.

One of the most lethal Hamas attacks took place as dawn broke on Saturday morning at the Supernova Festival near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip, where music lovers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, had gathered for a peaceful festival in the desert.

Music at what had been described as a ‘beautiful party’ with ‘good vibes’ played all night until round 6.30am when a siren began blaring warning of rockets. Hamas terrorists then cut the electricity as rockets flew overhead and jeeps filled with gunmen ran onto the site.

Terrifying footage shows the partygoers fleeing on foot over the sand to their cars, screaming as shots are fired. Some are seen holding hands as they run away while others shout ‘go, go, go’. Police are seen helping the crowd evacuate. 

Survivors of the attack said they were forced to hide under bushes as they watched victims get killed one by one, until they heard the sound of people rescuers speaking in Hebrew. According to Israeli media, it took five hours for military to arrive.

Shocking footage from the aftermath of the attack shows festival tents empty, with abandoned cars of those trying to escape strewn on the side of the road. 

Confirming the horror, the Israeli rescue service Zaka said it had recovered at least 260 bodies that will be removed from the festival site. 

Meanwhile distraught relatives, hoping to find their loved ones, were asked to bring personal items such as combs and toothbrushes belonging to their missing children to help emergency services begin the grim task of matching DNA to bodies found. 

Yaniv, an emergency worker who was amongst those medics who raced to the scene told public broadcaster Kan News he saw ‘at least 200 bodies of Israelis in the area’.

He said: ‘There are at least 200 bodies of Israelis in the area I was in. It was a massacre.

 ‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was a planned ambush. As people came out of the emergency exits, squads of terrorists were waiting for them there and just started picking them off.

‘There were 3,000 people at the event, so they probably knew it. They had intelligence information.’

Amongst those hiding was Gili Yoskovich, who was forced to shelter beneath a fruit tree in the middle of a field shaking for three hours as bullets flew past her. She hid until she heard people speaking Hebrew and was rescued by Israeli soldiers. 

The mother described how young people – whose night celebrating the end of the Sukkot religious holiday had turned to terror – were dying all around her as Hamas militants carried out their killing spree.

‘They were going tree by tree and shooting everywhere from two sides. 

‘I saw people were dying all around. They were all over the place with their automatic weapons. I was very quiet. I didn’t cry, I didn’t do anything,’ she told the BBC.

‘I was… breathing, saying: ‘OK, I’m going to die. It’s OK, just breathe, just close your eyes’.’

Michael Atias, said gunmen were systematically attacking festival-goers as they desperately fled the area.

He told the Times: ‘It started off as a beautiful party, with great vibes and energy. But at around 6.30am, the rocket fire started. Many people panicked and started running to their cars.

‘We heard gunshots and later realized that the gunmen were targeting those who were trying to flee the party — they were waiting for them.’

One partygoer named Ortel said the rockets fired were quickly followed by gunshots being fired from jeeps full of gunmen. 

She told the BBC: ‘They turned off the electricity and suddenly out of nowhere they [militants] come inside with gunfire, opening fire in every direction.

‘Fifty terrorists arrived in vans, dressed in military uniforms. They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicles and started running.’

As people tried to run through the sand or drive off in their cars, more shots were fired. 

Ortel said she hid in a bush where she watched ‘masses of wounded people thrown around’. 

Meanwhile festival-goer Adam Barel told Haaretz that while they had been aware of the chance of rocket fire, the gunshots came as a shock.

He told the Israeli newspaper that he was among those fleeing to their cars but shots were being fired so he decided it was better to run.  ‘People were hit. We hid. Everyone ran somewhere else,’ he said.

A number of people who attended the peaceful festival in the desert, that coincided with the Jewish festival of Sukkot, are missing – including Noa Argamani and her boyfriend Avi Nathan. 

Heartbreaking footage showed the 25-year-old student screaming ‘Don’t kill me! N, no, no’ as she was forced onto the back of a motorcycle just metres away from her helpless boyfriend who was held at gunpoint. Both remain missing. 

Widely shared on social media, the footage of Noa’s kidnapping is almost too distressing to bear. ‘Imagine what it is like for her family,’ said her university roommate, Amir Moadi.  

They found out she had been snatched only when they chanced upon the footage online. 

Earlier today her inconsolable father, Yaacov Argamani, sobbed as he voiced his fears for her safety, saying: ‘she was so petrified, so scared’.

Speaking through tears, he said: ‘I was hoping this is a mistake that it’s not true. And then in the hospital a guy asked me if I wanted to see. I said yes and then I know for sure it is Noa… she was so petrified, so scared.’

He then begins to uncontrollably sob. ‘I was always so protective but in this moment I couldn’t protect her,’ he told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 News.

‘All my life since she was born I have tried to protect and hug her, support and love her. I wish I could at this difficult moment at least encourage her or say something to her.’

Noa’s aunt, Yaffe Ohad, said they were ‘crazy with worry’. She said: ‘We know that Noa was kidnapped, probably in the hours of the beginning of the fighting.’

Avi’s brother Moshe also first heard of his brother going missing after seeing the video on social media.

He told Channel 12: ‘We knew that my brother Avinathan and his girlfriend Noa Argamani were at the party and we started to worry. 

‘Their phones were unavailable and after a few hours an emergency team contacted us and said they had seen a video of them being kidnapped in the direction of the Strip.’

Moshe said he found the video on social media seeing his brother, who he described as ‘a big guy’, being held by five people who were he presumed were taking ‘him towards the strip’.

The fears of Noa and Avi’s relatives are mirrored in the faces of countless other families who have no idea where their loved ones are alive or whether they are safe after being taken hostage by terrorists. 

One of those captured at the festival was 30-year-old German tattoo artist Shani Louk.

Her lifeless, half-naked body was paraded on the back of a Hamas pick-up trick as militants sat on top of her and jeered following the violent incursion.  

She filmed splayed in the back of a truck, with one leg at an unnatural angle, terrorists sitting around it and supporters of the group cheering, running alongside and spitting on her.

Hamas said the body was a female Israeli soldier but last night it was confirmed to be Shani by her cousin Tomasina Weintraub-Louk.

Tomasina told DailyMail.com that the family recognized her distinctive leg tattoos and dreadlocked hair.

Her mother, Ricarda, released a heartbreaking video begging for help to find out what happened to her daughter.

Holding a picture of Shani on her mobile phone, she said: ‘This morning my daughter, Shani Nicole Louk, a German citizen, was kidnapped with a group of tourists in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas.

‘We were sent a video in which I could clearly see our daughter unconscious in the car with the Palestinians and them driving around the Gaza Strip.

‘I ask you to send us any help or any news. Thank you very much.’

Last night it was also reported that Doron Asher, 34, and her two daughters, Raz, five, and Aviv, three, were among Israeli civilians taken hostage by Hamas gunmen and held captive in Gaza. 

As the search continues to find the missing, the death toll in Israel has risen to 700, according to Israeli media sites, with 2,300 being injured. More than 300 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory.

Hamas has been proscribed as a terror group in its entirety in the UK since 2021. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the attack on Israel today, declaring ‘terrorism will not prevail’ and pledged ‘steadfast support’ to Benjamin Netanyahu as the death toll continues to rise. 

It comes as the family of 20-year-old Nathanel Young, a Briton serving with the Israeli Defence Services, said he had been killed on the Gaza border on Saturday.

Two other UK nationals – 26-year-old Jake Marlowe, who went to the same London school as Mr Young and photographer Danny Darlington – are also thought to be missing.

Mr Marlowe had been working at the Supernova Festival, near the Gaza Strip, when Palestinian militants stormed onto the site at the crack of dawn. 

He was last seen attempting to help rescue revellers from the killers. 

An embassy source told MailOnline that they do not know whether Mr Marlowe is dead or has been captured.

His mother Lisa told the Jewish News: ‘He was doing security at this rave yesterday and called me at 4.30am to say all these rockets were flying over.

‘Then, at about 5.30am, he texted to say ‘signal very bad, everything OK, will keep you updated I promise you’, and that he loves me.’

Jake’s best friend, Léa Sztemberg, exclusively told MailOnline that he left the UK two years ago for Israel over anxieties related to the rise of anti-Semitism.

She said: ‘Just before he went to live in Israel, he was really worried about the UK situation with the rise of anti-Semitism.

‘He was thinking he should go to Israel because everything that was happening to him in the UK was a lot for him.’

Her partner, Daniel Aboudy, told Sky News that his yearning for more knowledge about his Jewish heritage started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘He felt it was duty to trace back to his roots, and find his home that he felt he truly belonged to in Israel.’

According to the Independent, Mr Marlowe sent a message to his friends describing how he was trying to save other people.

The message said: ‘We are seeing it in front of our eyes, we are rounding up the people from the party now, we are on an ATV [quad bike] and we are telling everyone to get the f*** outta there.’ 

Irish-Israeli citizen, Kim Damti, 22, is also thought to be amongst the missing following the militant’s surprise attack at the festival. 

The Irish government said it is contact with the young woman’s family, according to the Irish Times.

Her mother Jennifer, from Portaoise, told the paper: ‘She’s just a brilliant kid. A happy kid trying to have fun.’

Irish premier Leo Varadkar confirmed they were aware of the case. He said: ‘We don’t have any definite detail beyond that, but certainly (we’re) aware of it and willing to offer any consular assistance we can to any Irish citizens or any dual Irish citizens that are caught up in these terrible attacks.’ 

In a statement delivered from Chequers, the Prime Minister said: ‘The scenes that we’ve seen in Israel over the past 36 hours are truly horrifying. 

‘I want to express my absolute solidarity for the people of Israel now is not a time for equivocation, and I’m unequivocal. Hamas, and the people who support Hamas, are fully responsible for this appalling act of terror, for the murder of civilians and for the kidnapping of innocent people, including children.’

Mr Sunak said he had spoken with the Israeli PM earlier on Sunday to offer the UK’s ongoing support, adding: ‘Terrorism will not prevail.’

Asked what assistance is being provided to British citizens caught up in the conflict, he told reporters: ‘This is a dangerous and fast-moving situation on the ground. And I know that there will be families who are anxious about their loved ones.

‘I want to reassure them that the Foreign Office and the Government here is in close contact with our Israeli counterpart to establish the status of any British nationals on the ground.’

The murders carried out by Hamas terrorists, however, were applauded at a left wing event, called The World Transforms, on the sidelines of the Labour conference today.

Clapping for the bloody violence broke out amongst audience members at a meeting to mark 75 years since the Nakba or ‘catastrophe’ that led to the creation of the Jewish state.

It came as one of the speakers at the event said she was ‘honoured’ to be speaking at such a ‘historic moment’. 

Yasmin Elsouda, an activist and member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the audience: ‘I’m honoured to be speaking at such an historic moment, certainly in my lifetime, in our struggle…’

The event is not officially linked to Labour but was created while Jeremy Corbyn was the party leader.

Corbyn, who is a still a Labour member despite being kicked out of the parliamentary party, refused to directly condemn Hamas when he was quizzed by reporters today.

Instead the ex-Labour leader pointed to a statement he issued yesterday over the violence during tetchy exchanges with journalists.

‘Why are you interrputing me?,’ Mr Corbyn said. ‘Yesterday I sent out a statement calling for a ceasefire, calling for peace and calling for an end to the occupation of Palestine which, of course, is fundamentally the background to the whole issue.

‘Obviously all attacks are wrong.’

Keir Starmer condemned the ‘appalling’ atrocities in Israel today as he faces pressure to act against Labour MPs and activists who make excuses for Hamas.

The Labour leader decried the ‘acts of terrorism’ as he struggles to stop hard-left figures including Jeremy Corbyn derailing his pre-election conference in Liverpool.

In a BBC interview, Sir Keir said the indiscriminate launching of missiles, slaughter of civilians and hostage-taking in Israel was a ‘deliberate’ attempt to set back the peace process.

As the fighting in the Middle East continues into the night, the Metropolitan Police announced it had ramped up ‘reassurance patrols’ in London.

Suella Braverman warned that the ‘full force of the law’ will be used against those who support Hamas or ‘intimidate’ Jews in Britain.

She posted on X this morning to say the government was doing ‘everything necessary’ to protect Jewish communities.

‘Whenever Israel is attacked, Islamists and other racists use Israeli defensive measures as a pretext to stir up hatred against British Jews,’ she wrote.

‘There must be zero tolerance for anti-semitism or glorification of terrorism on the streets of Britain. 

‘I expect the police to use the full force of the law against displays of support for Hamas, other proscribed terrorist groups or attempts to intimidate British Jews.’ 

The Home Secretary’s warning comes as images and videos of people waving Palestine flags and celebrating the bloody assault in the capital were shared on social media.

Rachel Riley, the Countdown presenter who is Jewish, posted a video on her X account, which showed a number of people celebrating the Hamas atrocity outside a café in Acton, West London.

She tweeted: ‘People have been brutally murdered and kidnapped and there are people in London dancing.’ 

On London’s Edgware Road, nicknamed the capital’s ‘Arab Street’, cars were draped with the Palestinian flag and horns blaring as if there was a football match victory.

Posting a video, a social media user said: ‘Islamists in London celebrating the deaths and captures of innocent civilians. Monsters.’

Motorists were also seen in other parts of London waving the Palestinian flag in celebration.

The latest statistics on hate crimes, released this week, show a rise in religious-based hate crimes in 2022-23 in the UK. 

Jewish communities are the second-most hit by religious-based hate crimes, accounting for 17 percent of all those recorded. 

Islamophobia results in the highest number of religious-based hate crimes per year, and made up 39 percent of them, the latest data shows. 

In other developments: 

• The death toll in Israel hit 700, including 260 attendees of a music festival. More than 400 Hamas fighters died, taking the total death toll above 1,000.

• Two Britons were feared to be among more than 100 hostages while a third, Nathanel Young, 20, from London, who was serving in the Israeli army, has been killed;

• The Israel Defence Forces continued to fight insurgents ‘trash can to trash can’ as they attempted to eliminate the last Hamas forces remaining in Israel;

•  Residents in Gaza were told to flee as it was pummelled by retaliatory airstrikes, killing more than 400 and wounding more than 2,300;

• Tensions escalated across the region, with two Israeli tourists shot dead in Egypt by a local policeman;

• Hezbollah traded rocket and artillery fire with Israeli forces on the Lebanese border;

• Iran was branded a ‘terrorist state’ as experts said the savage attack had Tehran’s ‘fingerprints all over it’;

• The US will send fighter jets and warships closer to Israel as a show of support;

• The Israeli flag was projected on to the outside of No 10 Downing Street last night in a signal of Britain’s solidarity with the country. Israel has been left reeling after scores of its people were taken hostage by the terrorist attackers in Saturday’s surprise assault, which unfolded as families celebrated a religious festival.