They are hostages of Hamas – the families plead: “Share our pictures”

Israel states that a “significant” number of people have been taken hostage by Hamas.

A day after the attacks began, more and more testimonies are coming from people who are missing family members.

– I recognized my wife on a kidnapping film from Hamas, says Yoni Asher, who is also missing her two daughters.

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Yoni Asher’s wife Doron and the couple’s daughters – aged 3 and 5 – were visiting an elderly relative in Kibbutz Nir near Gaza. After Hamas’s dawn attack, Yoni didn’t get hold of them, he tells German Bild.

Hours later he saw them again.

– I saw immediately that it was her, without a doubt. I saw a terrorist covering her head. And they covered my daughters’ heads, I immediately recognized my eldest daughter, says Yoni to Bild.

– They had been kidnapped together with my mother-in-law and her partner.

He now spreads pictures of his family, including via Israel’s official X account.

Found out they were kidnapped via the internet

An Israeli woman has also chosen to share the story of her abducted family. On social media, she is urging people to share the photos of her cousin and her family who were kidnapped on Saturday.

“We found out they were kidnapped through posts on the internet,” writes the woman.

Along with her children, a 9-month-old baby and a 3-year-old, the cousin is also said to have been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir outside the city of Ashkelon. The cousin’s husband and her parents have been kidnapped.

“Share their pictures so the whole world can see their faces. They were alive when they were kidnapped and will return alive,” writes the relative.

Spread in Hamas propaganda

On social media, many people express support for the family and also share a clip of the cousin and her children. Wrapped in a blanket and with her children in her arms, she is seen being led away by armed men.

Hamas has also shared the clip, both in its Arabic and English Telegram channels. In the English channel, where the group rarely updates, Hamas writes that they do not harm women or children.

“Qassam instructors teach Palestinian soldiers not to kill women, children and elderly people,” writes Hamas on its English account.

More information about abductees from Nir

Another woman has chosen to speak publicly about her family’s fate. Her family also disappeared from Kibbutz Nir.

“We cannot communicate with them, our hearts are broken,” writes the woman who asks people to share the photos of her family.

In total, five of her family members are said to have been kidnapped, three children, their father and the woman’s 80-year-old aunt.

“It is our duty to get them home,” writes the woman.