One of the most terrifying things for many of the current Israel-Hamas war is the abduction of an unknown number of civilians and soldiers by Hamas and carrying them into the Gaza Strip.
Some are American citizens, and their family members are calling on the U.S. to help find them.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with American citizens, in Tel Aviv, whose family members are missing.
“It sounded like the Secretary of State was really exploring all different options. I think it’s obvious that this is going to be a really complicated situation,” said Rachel Goldberg after meeting with Blinken on Thursday.
Goldberg’s son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was at a rave party when Hamas terrorists infiltrated, and rockets started flying into Israel.
“I normally don’t use my phone on the Jewish Sabbath, but it was an emergency and I needed to know where my son was. So, I turned my phone on, I believe at 8:23 in the morning, and when I turned it on, there were two texts in a row from Hirsch at 8:11 the first one said, ‘I love you,’ and immediately at 8:11 also it said, ‘I’m sorry,’ Goldberg told journalists.
Goldberg was among four families with American citizenship who told their stories to journalists at a press conference earlier in the week.
“And so I knew immediately, wherever he was, it was a terrible situation. I took it to mean, I love you and I’m sorry because whatever is going to happen is going to cause you tremendous pain and worry,” Goldberg added.
There’s no official count of how many Hamas is holding hostage. Many of them are citizens of other countries.
Adrienne Neta a 66-year-old retired nurse was on the phone with her children for an hour as fighting was going on outside, before terrorists broke into her home.
“We kept hearing the shooting. And we talked about going next year to Paris,” Adrienne’s daughter Dror Neta told CBN News. “And she said she loves us. And we told her ‘It’s not the time to say it.’ All of a sudden, she said they were walking into the house,” Dror said through her tears.
“She tried to speak Arabic with the terrorists,” said Adrienne’s son Carmel. Adrienne had been a nurse in a maternity ward for years delivering Jewish and Arab babies.
“And she talked to the terrorists who kidnapped her. And he asked her who is on the phone, and she said her children, and this was the last time we heard of it,” Carmel told CBN News.
Nineteen-year-old Itay Chen is a soldier from the Israeli coastal city of Netanyah, whose base near Gaza was attacked.
“Our last communication with him was at 6:30 Saturday where he communicated that they are being under attack and since then we have not heard from him,” Itay’s father Ruby Chen told CBN News.
“We got an [notification] from the official of the IDF that our son is defined as ‘missing in action,” Chen said.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, a father of two daughters, whose wife is pregnant with their third child, went out to fight with others when his community of Kibbutz Nir Oz came under attack on Saturday.
“[At] 6:30 in the morning, a large number of Hamas terrorists invaded our kibbutz and began rampaging through all of the homes and all of the buildings throughout the kibbutz,” Sagui’s father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen told CBN News.
“Nothing remains of our small community. Many of the younger men and some of the older men. organized to defend their families and their homes. Almost all of them are missing,” Dekel-Chen said.
They have a message for the world.
“Everyone should know that what happened is unusual. It’s barbarian. And there is a good side and bad side now. And if you have to choose now, you know what to choose,” said Dror Neta.
“The world should stand up and set the line that this is not acceptable in any terms. We cannot have terrorists breaking into the rooms of families, children and taking them,” Carmel Neta urged the international community.
“By allowing this type of aggression to happen in our region that would just give more organizations like the Hamas, which is not a state nation to act in similar ways. So if the international community allows this to happen here, it’ll be in your backyard pretty soon as well,” Ruby Chen warned.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN