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.
