“I just want to be able to hug him,” said Omri Shtivi, 30, whose brother Idan disappeared after a rave in the desert near the Gaza border was attacked by Hamas militants.

Speaking to AFP by phone, Shtivi said authorities had not contacted the family to provide information or help find his brother.

Police and the army’s Home Front Command opened a “missing persons command center” near Ben Gurion International Airport, near Lod in central Israel, on Saturday night – about 16 hours after the fighting began.

Mor Strikovski, 42, arrived there on Sunday to report the disappearance of her mother, a 63-year-old resident of Kibbutz Beeri, who she said is being held in Gaza.

“Yesterday was a very difficult day,” Strikovsky told AFP, recalling that Hamas fighters killed several residents of Beeri on Saturday and held dozens of hostages before a nighttime rescue operation by Israeli special forces.

“Today I received a video showing her being kidnapped,” he said. “My cousin…saw it on Telegram and asked me if I recognized her.” Hamas “kidnapped her from her home together with her husband and two neighbors,” Strikovski added.

“We think they are in Gaza, so I am here to report that,” this woman says, expressing hope that the militants “will treat her mother well” and that she will return safely.”

Play dead to survive

Dozens of people who arrived at the command center on Sunday were met by social workers before sharing any information about their relatives with officers.

They were asked to provide personal items from which DNA samples could be obtained, such as toothbrushes, razors or used clothing.

At a nearby forensic laboratory, the samples are compared against a database of DNA extracted from corpses.

But with hundreds confirmed dead and dozens missing, the process could take a long time, said Shelly Harush, the police commander overseeing the operation.

As they leave the command center, some people cry and hug each other. Many were visibly shaken and exhausted and refused to speak to the media.

Residents from the nearby town of Lod wait outside to offer families drinks and food.

Ester Borochov, 19, who survived the rave attack, told Israel’s Channel 12 that “they (Hamas militants) started shooting at us from close range,” but the young woman managed to escape in her car before being hit by bullets was hit. .”

“A young man took us in his jeep. They shot him, he lost consciousness and the car overturned,” Ester said.
“We played dead for two and a half hours, my friend and I… before help arrived,” Borochov said. “That’s how we survived.”

Foreigners among the hostages

The pain of the missing also extended beyond Israel’s borders. The mother of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli girl who attended this rave party, asked for help finding her after identifying Louk in a video showing militants in Gaza.

The Israeli embassy in Britain also reported that there is a British citizen “in Gaza”. She did not identify the man or confirm whether he had been kidnapped, but the mother of Jake Marlowe, a 26-year-old British man, said her son was security at the rave.

The hostages taken by Hamas include an unknown number of Americans, the Israeli ambassador to the United States confirmed on Sunday.

“Worst Nightmares”

A video, purportedly from Gaza, featuring Shiri Bivas, a resident of Nir Oz, along with her nine-month-old baby Kfir and three-year-old son Ariel, made Bivas’ cousin, Yifat Zilber, feel uncomfortable. “All the information we have comes mainly from social media,” Zilber told AFP by phone.

“We have no idea what happened to her (Bivas’) husband, Yarden” and her parents, who Zilber said were also “probably kidnapped” but who do not appear in the video. “We want them to return safely,” Zilber says, his voice breaking. “They are innocent civilians. There are international agencies designed to protect innocent civilians… they must intervene.”

Adva Adar also learned from a video circulating on social media that her grandmother, Yaffa Adar, 85, also of Nir Oz, had been kidnapped.

“Yesterday, around 8am (0500 GMT), we lost contact with her,” the granddaughter told reporters via video conference. When forces finally reached the house around 5 p.m., it was “completely destroyed, reduced to ashes” and Adva’s grandmother “wasn’t there”.

“I can’t imagine how scared and uncomfortable she is. She is 85 years old, sick and on no medication. We don’t know where she is or if she has food or water.” Adva Adar also said, “We didn’t do that.” “We haven’t heard anything yet” from the authorities. “Even in our worst nightmares, we couldn’t have imagined this.”