British families have described the scale of the atrocities committed in Israel by Hamas as a “second Holocaust” as the UK prepares to send military support to the region.
At least 17 British citizens are feared to be dead or missing after the unprecedented attack last weekend during which 1,200 Israelis were killed while some 1,400 Palestinians have died in retaliatory strikes.
Noam Sagi and Sharon Lifschitz, both from London, said their elderly parents had been forcibly taken from their homes into Gaza and had not been heard from for five days.
Mr Sagi, a psychotherapist, said he last spoke to his mother Ada when she texted him to say she was entering her safe room. She should be celebrating her 75th birthday, he said.
“On Saturday morning, the kibbutz woke up to a massacre, a second holocaust,” said Mr Sagi at a press conference in Westminster on Thursday, adding that there had been reports of people being “burned, butchered, slaughtered and kidnapped”.
“These are peace-loving people who fought all their lives for good neighbouring relationships. If they will die for peace, they will take it. If they will die for war, that will be another travesty.”
Sharon Lifschitz and Noam Sagi say their parents have been taken hostage by Hamas militants— (PA)
His desperate plea for information about his mother came as Rishi Sunak announced UK military support would be sent to the area to support Israel.
The package includes surveillance aircraft, helicopters, P8 aircraft, and a company of marines, which will be dispatched on Friday.
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The development came as:
:: The Foreign Office announced it would arrange flights for stranded British citizens who want to leave, while the families of diplomats will be leaving Israel as a “precautionary measure”. British Airways has cancelled all its flights to Tel Aviv
:: The office of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, released horrific images on social media showing “babies murdered by Hamas” – adding that the siege of Gaza wouldn’t end until the 150 hostages were released
:: The Israeli air force said it had pummelled Gaza with 6,000 bombs since it started its retaliation on Saturday. The UN warned that crucial supplies were running dangerously low in the Gaza Strip
:: US secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Israel on Thursday and told Mr Netanyahu he understood “the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry for Israeli Jews” and that Washington was at Israel’s side
Standing at a podium next to the Israeli prime minister at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Mr Blinken urged Israel to show restraint in its retaliation, in his most direct plea so far, asking that it take every possible precaution to protect civilian life.
“You may be strong enough on your own to defend yourself,” he said. “But as long as America exists, you will never ever have to. We will always be there by your side.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US secretary of state Antony Blinken hold a joint press conference— (EPA)
Later, Mr Blinken said at a news conference that Israeli officials had shared videos and images of the aftermath of the Hamas attacks, which he said showed a baby “riddled with bullets”, soldiers beheaded and young people burnt in their cars.
“It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. It’s really beyond anything that we can comprehend, digest.”
In Gaza, there were desperate scenes as health authorities had to make agonising decisions as medical supplies ran critically low and footage showed a city reduced to rubble in many areas.
The UN warned that crucial supplies were running dangerously low in the Gaza Strip— (AFP)
Lt Colonel Richard Hecht, international spokesperson of the Israeli military, said the “scale and scope” of their operation will be “very severe”. He also confirmed the military was continuing its ferocious bombardment of Gaza.
Israel has been massing troops at the border with Gaza, with expectations a ground invasion will follow. Lt Col Hecht said: “We are preparing for a ground manoeuvre if it is decided.”
In London, Mr Sagi and Ms Lifschitz showed reporters photographs of people who remain unaccounted for in Israel, including a six-month-old baby.
Mr Sagi and Ms Lifschitz said their elderly parents are without their medication and described the situation created as “the biggest hostage crisis the world has faced in decades”.
The Hamas attacks were described as a ‘second Holocaust’ by Sagi and Lifschitz— (AFP)
Ms Lifschitz, an artist and academic, who also grew up on the kibbutz where her mother disappeared, said: “My mum was taken out, she was kind of disconnected from her oxygen in order to be loaded onto a motorbike or whatever it is, I don’t know.”
Also feared missing is Emily Damari, a dual Israeli-British national whose mother is originally from Kent.
Her brother Tom told The Independent: “We all miss Emily, looking forward for her coming back soon. She has been missing from Kfar Azza since Saturday. Her last message at 10am was that the terrorist is in her apartment and shooting at her.
“She’s missing so we presume she is in Gaza taken as hostage. There are 10-15 missing young people from the kibbutz Kfar Aza .
“I was also at the kibbutz with my wife and two daughters and with a little bit of luck we survived. I don’t want to talk to about it, I’m still processing it,” he said.
Pictures of loved ones who have been captured by Hamas on display during a Defend Israeli Democracy UK press conference— (PA)
Abbey Onn, a US citizen, was one of those to meet Mr Blinken in Tel Aviv. The last message she received from the family of her cousin, Carmella Dan, 80, also a US citizen, was that Hamas militants were inside their house, and that “we are afraid we won’t get out [of] this”. Ms Onn was in Herzily, a city 120km (75 miles) north of the kibbutz in her own bomb shelter as air raid sirens were blaring.
Ms Dan was with three of her grandchildren aged between 12 and 16 years old and her son in law, Ofer Calderon, 50. They texted that they were desperately tyring to make it to the bomb shelters in two locations in a kibbutz, Nir Oz, which is just a few kilometres from the border with Gaza. “It is hard,” Ms Onn said, swallowing her words with a sob, as she described how Erez’s favourite things are lego and video games.
The family have confirmation two of them were kidnapped because they appeared in video footage shared online. They don’t know what happened to the others. She is worried about Ms Dan who has a heart condition. “It is a 400 person kibbutz, there are only 160 survivors, the rest were killed or believed kidnapped,” Ms Onn said.
On Mr Blinken’s visit, she added: “We are beyond grateful for the support of the US government. We are asking for the secretary of state and the president and the media to secure their immediate release.”
In London, Ms Lifschitz said the distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people must “now be absolutely clear” and that she “can’t imagine” how Palestinians cope under their rule.
She added: “This is the defining moment of our life. We are going to spend the rest of our lives dealing with this atrocity.
“We have yet to really comprehend what took place. Now, we are still in this event and we are not up to date and, in this event, these children and elderly must come back.
“This is people with cancer, this is people with dementia, this is people with Parkinson’s.”
“In Israeli communities in south Israel they went door to door and snatched babies from their mothers and children from their beds, handcuffed them and brutally and cold bloodedly slaughtered them,” a spokesperson for the British-Israeli families claimed in a short statement.
On Wednesday, Jake Marlowe from north London was confirmed as the fourth British citizen to have been killed in the shock incursion, with his family left “heartbroken”.
Jake Marlowe was killed while working at a music festival— (Facebook)
He had been working as a security guard at the Supernova music festival near the border with Gaza, which was overrun with gunmen. Emergency workers retrieved 260 bodies from the site, while a number of festival-goers remain missing.
Also confirmed dead is Scottish grandfather Bernard Cowan, photographer Danny Darlington and IDF soldier Nathanel Young.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Cowan’s friend Craig Budden, who worked with him in Eilat, said he “died defending the community he loved”.
“His hobby was recreational scuba diving and he was passionate about it, regularly driving down to Eilat on the Israeli Red Sea coast even just for the day,” he said. “There was a day when he took a camera in the water and that was it – passion on steroids, he became the most avid underwater photographer, travelling the world always looking to dive.
“He loved his family, Israel, the Kibbutz and scuba diving. We all loved him back and miss him.” Mr Cowan, who had only recently become a grandfather, is survived by his wife and three children.
