A teenager missing and feared kidnapped after Hamas targeted Israeli kibbutzim was murdered during the attack, relatives have confirmed.
Yahel Sharabi, 13, was originally believed missing and possibly taken hostage after the raid on Be’eri kibbutz two miles from the Gazan border in which her Bristol-born mother, Lianne, was killed.
Her sister Noiya, 16, who is a British citizen like Yahel, and their Israeli father, Eli, are still missing.
Yahel was described as “full of adventure and mischief”. In a statement to BBC News on Tuesday, relatives said: “Beautiful Yahel. A bundle of unbridled energy and joy, with a cheekiness that you could not help but smile at and a brain which was sharp as a tack. Full of adventure and mischief, we will forever miss her, but are grateful for the light she brought into our lives in the too short time she was with us.”
The girl’s death has been confirmed by her family, the Israeli embassy in London said.
Lianne, 48, moved to Israel aged 19 as a volunteer on a kibbutz and never left, meeting her husband there. The couple married in the UK in 2000. Her brother and parents live in the UK and are “devastated”, a source in contact with them said.
Lianne was described by her family as a “beloved daughter, sister, mother, aunt and friend who enriched the lives of all those lucky enough to have known and loved her. She lived a beautiful life and will be sorely missed by the heartbroken family and friends she leaves behind,” they said in a tribute before it was confirmed that Yahel had also died.
Relatives based in the UK have said the family visited at least once a year, and spoke of the “joy on [the girls’] faces as they ripped open gifts”.
During the Hamas attack, Lianne messaged family members to say she could hear gunfire and shouting in Arabic nearby. Living so close to the Gaza border, she was no stranger to security alerts. But “this is a whole other story”, she told them, the BBC has reported. Her husband’s brother Yossi, Yossi’s wife, Nira, and their three daughters were also caught up in the attack.
Two Israeli-based uncles of Yahel and Noiya have told how they had received a series of panicked messages from Lianne on 7 October. “She wrote that she heard gunshots outside her home. That people were screaming and calling in Arabic. And people running all over.
“So they stayed in the safe room until they heard the terrorists had entered the house and tried to open the door,” the uncles told MailOnline.
Communication then ceased. Seven hours passed before they received word from Be’eri about the scale of the attack. It was not until three days later that Israeli soldiers were able to enter Eli and Lianne’s home, where they saw bullets embedded in the walls of the bomb shelter and in the children’s room, the uncles said.
The family fear Noiya and her father, Eli, have been taken into Gaza. Yossi and one of his children have officially been declared as hostages.
At least six Britons were killed in the Hamas attacks, with a further 10 missing, some feared dead. The Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell told the BBC ministers were “extremely concerned” about British hostages being held by Hamas, and on Sky News he said “we pray that they are alive”.
He was unable to elaborate on the efforts to secure their release, but told LBC: “The entire resources of the British government are involved in doing everything we can to get our citizens back.”
