‘She was so frightened, however I could not shield her’: Father of Israeli pupil kidnapped from dance pageant breaks down in tears after seeing footage of his ‘petrified’ daughter begging for her life on again of Hamas truck

The daddy of an Israeli pupil kidnapped from a dance pageant by Hamas terrorists broke down in tears as he watched distressing footage of his ‘petrified’ daughter begging for her life.

Heartbreaking footage reveals Noa Argamani screaming ‘Do not kill me! No, no, no’ as she was compelled onto the again of a motorbike by the Palestinian militants throughout yesterday’s shock assault from Gaza which has claimed the lives of a whole lot of individuals to this point.

The 25-year-old was seen stretching her arms out in a determined bid to stick with her boyfriend, who was compelled away at gunpoint, earlier than been carried away by the terrorists. Neither have been seen since.

Right this moment her father, Yaacov Argamani, was inconsolable and broke down in tears as he recalled the horrifying second he noticed the video displaying his daughter had been kidnapped by Hamas.

Talking by means of tears, he stated: ‘I hoped this can be a mistake that it is not true. After which within the hospital a man requested me if I wished to see. I stated sure after which I do know for certain it’s Noa… she was so petrified, so scared.’

He then begins to uncontrollably sob. ‘I used to be at all times so protecting however on this second I could not shield her,’ he informed Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 Information.

‘All my life since she was born I’ve tried to guard and hug her, help and love her. I want I may at this troublesome second at the least encourage her or say one thing to her.’

Noa’s aunt, Yaffe Ohad, stated they had been ‘loopy with fear’. She stated: ‘We all know that Noa was kidnapped, in all probability within the hours of the start of the preventing.’

Noa’s boyfriend, Avi Nathan, distraught and helpless, is left behind within the desert. He too is lacking.

Broadly shared on social media, the footage of Noa’s kidnapping is sort of too distressing to bear. ‘Think about what it’s like for her household,’ stated her college roommate, Amir Moadi. They discovered she had been snatched solely after they chanced upon the footage on-line.

Israeli festivalgoer Gili Yoskovich described the horrifying moment Hamas gunmen stormed the dance pageant and began opening fireplace on anyone they noticed as folks fled for his or her lives.

A terrified Gili hid below a tree shaking for 3 hours as bullets whizzed round her as terrorists opened fireplace on Saturday morning at defenceless revellers at an all-night trance music rave close to Kibbutz Re’im, near the Gaza Strip.

The mom described how younger folks – whose evening celebrating the tip of the Sukkot spiritual vacation had turned to terror – had been dying throughout her and on the street as Hamas militants went ‘tree to tree’ on a killing spree.

Because the gunmen opened fireplace, Gili sprinted for her life and hid beneath a fruit tree in the midst of the sector the place she stayed till she heard folks talking in Hebrew and was rescued by Israeli troopers.

‘I noticed folks had been dying throughout. I used to be very quiet. I did not cry, I did not do something,’ she informed the BBC.

‘I used to be… respiratory, saying: “OK, I will die. It is OK, simply breathe, simply shut your eyes”.’

Gili described the horror because the bloodbath unfolded and stated: ‘They had been going tree by tree and taking pictures. In all places. From two sides. I noticed folks had been dying throughout. I used to be very quiet. I did not cry, I did not do something.’

It was additionally reported that Doron Asher, 34, and her two daughters, Raz, 5, and Aviv, three, had been amongst Israeli civilians taken hostage by Hamas gunmen and held captive in Gaza.

German tattoo artist Shani Louk, 30, was one other taken and a video later emerged of her lifeless and semi-naked body being paraded at the back of a Hamas pick-up truck as militants sat on high of her and jeered.

Her mom, Ricarda, has launched a heartbreaking video begging to know what had occurred to her daughter.  

A sudden invasion by the Hamas group has already left at the least 482 folks lifeless and one other 3,200 injured – in lower than in the future. Dozens extra are stated to have been kidnapped and pushed throughout the border into the Gaza Strip.

Together with a whole lot of different younger Israelis, Noa and Avi had been having fun with a peace pageant within the desert after they had been compelled to flee for his or her lives from Hamas terrorists.

Revellers had gathered for an all-night trance music rave close to Kibbutz Re’im, near the Gaza Strip, to have fun the tip of the Sukkot spiritual vacation.

However the festivities turned to chaos yesterday morning after Palestinian terrorists started firing rockets and gunshots into the gang.

Footage circulated on social media confirmed a whole lot of individuals screaming and crying as they fled the rave website on foot, pursued by the sound of gunfire.

‘I used to be presupposed to go to the desert occasion however determined on the final minute to not,’ stated Amir. ‘We final heard from her round 10am or 11am this morning when she texted us all to say that terrorists had opened fireplace and had been chasing everybody however that they had been each protected in hiding.

‘We have not heard from them since however then, sadly, we noticed the disturbing movies of her abduction on-line. Certainly one of her on the again of a motorcycle with terrorists.

‘The household is OK with us posting this as a result of they need her launched and are hoping somebody will help.

‘Her dad and mom are in shock and may’t even converse. She’s an solely baby.

‘She is such a stunning, optimistic girl, at all times sort and likes to journey. She simply received again from Sri Lanka. We will not imagine one thing like this might occur at house.’

Final evening, Avi’s brother Moshe stated: ‘My brother simply wished to occasion along with his girlfriend and look what occurred.’

The surprising story got here as households throughout Israel awoke yesterday anticipating to have fun one of many holiest days within the Jewish calendar collectively.

As a substitute, the pageant of Simchat Torah grew to become a day of terror and bloodshed for residents dwelling close to the Gaza Strip.

The peace of the holy Sabbath was shattered within the early morning as marauding Hamas gunmen invaded the streets in locations equivalent to Sderot, a metropolis lower than a mile from the border.

Brazen Hamas fighters knocked on the doorways of residents who anticipated to seek out Israeli troopers seeking to reassure them in regards to the air-raid sirens.

As a substitute, harmless moms with kids, settlers and even the frail aged discovered themselves the ‘warfare booty’ of the masked terrorists, who dragged them away at gunpoint. 

Their actions – which horrified the worldwide neighborhood – introduced again grim reminders of masked Islamic State terrorists in Syria, who paraded hostages on social media earlier than executing them. 

However one Hamas chief hinted to the world that these hostages, whose quantity was nicely over 50 final evening, wouldn’t be killed however be used as human bargaining chips to have their very own prisoners in Israeli jails launched.

One terrorism professional added that the captured Israelis may even be used as human shields to cease the Israeli air power – which started pounding Gaza yesterday – from blowing up sure targets.

Horrifying footage on social media confirmed terrified hostages being taken to Gaza by Hamas fighters, who chanted ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is nice) as they led them away. 

In a single chilling video, a younger Israeli girl, reported as being a soldier on social media, was seen mendacity at the back of an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) armoured car commandeered by the terrorists. Then she was dragged by her hair out of the boot. Her garments had been drenched in blood.

As she was bundled into the again seat, cheering terrorists armed with Kalashnikov rifles shouted ‘Allahu akbar’. The destiny of the unidentified girl was not recognized final evening. 

For Israelis working and dwelling inside vary of Gaza, the sight of Hamas militants roaming outdoors their houses marked a terrifying flip of occasions not like something residents had skilled earlier than.

‘This was at all times the nightmare. We informed ourselves that in the future, the terrorists will come inside right here,’ stated Jehan Berman, a 42-year-old within the small neighborhood of Avshalom, just some kilometers from Gaza. 

He added that it took eight hours for the Israeli navy to reach to his kibbutz and begin warding off the Hamas fighters. ‘We can not stay like this.’

Mr Berman – who suffers from a number of wounds and disabilities inflicted by the previous 4 wars and numerous different skirmishes between Israel and Hamas through the years – stated that Israeli authorities had notified him that Hamas had kidnapped his 75-year-old mother-in-law, together with a number of buddies of their 30s and their babies. 

The final time he heard from his mother-in-law was at 10.30am, he stated, when she known as him, panicked and distraught, to say that Hamas militants had shot and killed her husband.

An Israeli military spokesman says preventing is continuous in 22 areas in southern Israel some 12 hours after Hamas militants launched a shock assault from the Gaza Strip.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari additionally stated that Israel was placing targets in Gaza from the air and that floor operations had been imminent.

Hagari confirmed ongoing hostage conditions within the cities of Ofakim and Beeri. Earlier, each the Israeli navy and Hamas confirmed that some Israelis had been captured and brought hostage.

In a single ten-second video posted on Telegram, at the least 5 Israeli girls with bloodied faces could be seen huddled at the back of a pick-up truck, being taken away as hostages.

One other six-second video confirmed an Israeli mom with two younger boys being captured. In pro-Hamas Twitter accounts, it was stated that she was taken below their safety however her destiny and that of her kids weren’t recognized.

Sources on the Israeli embassy in London final evening stated a lot of the hostages had been taken from seven areas bordering the Gaza Strip, together with the town of Ashkelon. It was additionally reported that a number of hostages had been taken away from a kibbutz within the village of Be’eri, close to the Gaza border.

In a single case, a video confirmed an Israeli hostage, fully lined up with a white sheet, being taken away by a gaggle of terrorists in a golf buggy.

Two different movies emerged on X, previously Twitter, which confirmed aged girls being taken to Gaza. In a single, an Israeli girl sporting a crimson high was sandwiched between two Hamas terrorists on a bike. 

And in grainy cell phone footage, a feminine pensioner was pushed away in a buggy with three armed terrorists on board.

Final evening it was additionally reported {that a} mom and her two daughters, aged two and 4, had been amongst Israeli civilians taken hostage by Hamas gunmen and held captive in Gaza.

Sources within the Israeli authorities admitted that a few of their troopers had been captured as hostages however stated their identities couldn’t be confirmed till their households had been knowledgeable.

Grim movies confirmed one male Israeli soldier taken to Gaza and paraded by means of the streets whereas passers-by assaulted him. There have been additionally experiences {that a} senior commander of the IDF was taken hostage however the Israeli authorities has not confirmed it.

Shoval Kahlon, a resident of Sderot, informed the Israeli public broadcaster Kan yesterday: ‘We awoke at 6.30am to alarms. We thought it was the same old rocket assaults however we began listening to gunshots on the road. 

‘We then began seeing Hamas folks in pick-up vans. They knocked on the houses of residents, who thought they had been Israeli troopers. They took them hostage.’

Talking on Saturday evening, PM Netanyahu issued a dire warning to Hamas militants: ‘I inform Hamas, you’re accountable for the wellbeing of captives, Israel will settle the rating with anybody who harms them.’

He vowed to defeat the group, however stated the warfare would ‘take time’, persevering with: ‘What occurred right now has by no means been seen in Israel, we’ll take mighty vengeance for this black day.’

Promising ‘mighty vengeance’, he promised to scale back Gaza to ‘rubble’, telling harmless Palestinians to depart instantly. 

Quickly after, a convey of tanks had been reported to be heading in the direction of the border with Gaza. 

Talking late on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Israeli navy stated the scenario within the south of the nation was ‘nonetheless not absolutely below management’. 

Jonathan Conricus stated Hamas militants initially went from ‘home to deal with’ searching for Israeli civilians, a few of whom had been ‘executed in chilly blood’ in their very own houses.

No less than 250 Israelis and 232 Palestinians have been killed on account of the assault and the spokesman believes this quantity will rise.

Rocket strikes have been persevering with all through the evening from either side, as supporters of the Hamas group have been pictured celebrating the battle escalation in neighbouring international locations together with Iran. 

Saleh al-Arouri, a high Hamas official, informed the Al Jazeera tv station that his group is holding ‘a big quantity’ of Israeli prisoners, together with senior officers, including they are going to be used to cut price for the discharge of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 

There are an estimated 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli jails, together with 33 girls and 170 minors.

In 2011, Israel secured the discharge of its soldier Gilad Shalit by liberating greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism professional on the RUSI think-tank, stated: ‘Utilizing hostages as bargaining chips has been achieved by Hamas earlier than. It’s probably they’ll do that once more, and never execute hostages.

‘It’s attainable the hostages could possibly be used as human shields in coming days, however their foremost position can be to get Hamas prisoners launched.’

Josep Borrell Fontelles, the EU Excessive Consultant for Overseas Affairs and Safety Coverage, stated final evening: ‘Information of civilians taken as hostages of their houses or to Gaza are appalling. That is in opposition to worldwide legislation. Hostages have to be launched instantly.’

Onslaught from land, sea and air: IAN GALLAGHER reveals how Palestinian terrorists crossed into Israel and launched a co-ordinated, multi-pronged assault that left the world recoiling in horror 

The world recoiled in horror yesterday as Israel suffered its worst onslaught for 50 years – caught off guard by unprecedented land, sea and air assaults.

In a co-ordinated, multi-pronged assault, Palestinian terrorists crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, seizing settlements and capturing and murdering civilians celebrating a Jewish vacation.

In a video extensively shared on social media, a lady screaming ‘Do not kill me!’ could be seen being pushed off on a bike by a gunman.

The Mail on Sunday has discovered she is Noa Argamani, 25, a pupil who was seized at an out of doors peace pageant she had attended along with her boyfriend near the border.

Different footage confirmed captured troopers and civilians – some lifeless – being paraded by means of Gaza’s streets.

Heralding the beginning of what Hamas known as ‘the best battle to finish the final occupation on Earth’, Gaza’s ruling group had earlier fired greater than 2,500 rockets at Israeli targets, killing greater than 200 and injuring 980.

Elsewhere, a number of the invaders used motorised paragliders to assault enemy bases with machine weapons.

Many extra gunmen poured into Israel in a convoy of vans, automobiles and bikes after an advance occasion bulldozed the closely fortified border, beforehand thought of impregnable. Others got here ashore by boat. The assaults immediately plunged the area into all-out warfare.

Israel vowed revenge and responded with a devastating missile blitz that left 230 lifeless and 1,610 injured in Gaza. Earlier, Hamas was accused of cold-blooded executions, with footage of obvious victims flooding social media.

In different developments on Israel’s darkest day for many years:

Terrorists seized at the least 50 Israeli hostages and took them into Gaza the place they’re being held in underground tunnels;

• Gunmen drove a captured aged girl into Gaza on a golf cart;
• A video confirmed the physique of a half-naked girl, stated to be an Israeli soldier, being paraded by means of the Gaza Strip. One other revealed a lifeless man in navy uniform slumped on the again of a truck. Elsewhere, based on experiences, a military commander was taken hostage;
• A desert rave in Reim, close to the Gaza border, was attacked, with dozens kidnapped and several other killed;
• Israel stated its forces had been engaged in gunfights with Hamas terrorists in at the least 20 areas;
• Final evening there have been experiences of Hezbollah terrorists gathering at Israel’s border with Lebanon, with Israel Defence Forces troops firing at them. Intelligence sources stated that Hezbollah was in full readiness for warfare, elevating fears that the battle may escalate even additional;
• Rishi Sunak is predicted to talk to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him Britain is on stand-by to supply assist and help on the soonest alternative;
• Safety at synagogues throughout Britain was ‘strengthened’;
• Hamas stated hostages can be used to barter the discharge of Palestinian prisoners.

World leaders have appealed for restraint, with US President Joe Biden warning Israel’s enemies to not benefit from the scenario.

Calling the assaults ‘unconscionable’, Mr Biden stated final evening: ‘Right this moment the folks of Israel got here below an assault orchestrated by a terrorist organisation, Hamas.

‘On this second of tragedy I wish to say to them, and to the world, and to terrorists in every single place, america stands with Israel. We is not going to ever fail to have her again.’

Starting at daybreak yesterday, the rocket blizzard rapidly overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Mohammed Deif, the shadowy chief of Hamas’s navy wing, stated the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Financial institution cities over the previous yr, violence at Al-Aqsa, the disputed Jerusalem holy website sacred to Jews because the Temple Mount, growing assaults by settlers on Palestinians and the expansion of settlements.

‘Sufficient is sufficient,’ Deif, who doesn’t seem in public, stated within the recorded message.

He revealed that the assault was solely the beginning of what he known as ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Storm’ and known as on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to affix the battle.

In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Swords. Among the many bombing targets was the home of Hamas Gaza chief Yehya Al-Sinwar in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip. Mr Netanyahu warned that ‘the enemy pays a worth he has by no means recognized’.

Preventing raged on the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the Yom Kippur Warfare, when Israel was equally caught napping by its neighbours.

Yesterday was the final day of one other spiritual vacation, Sukkot. The invasion left many Israelis asking the identical query: How may this occur?

Israel has essentially the most well-funded intelligence service within the Center East, with informants and brokers inside Palestinian terror teams, but did not anticipate the assaults.

It has additionally constructed a large fence alongside the Gaza border which is supposed to forestall infiltrations.

The fence goes deep underground and is provided with cameras, sensors and delicate listening know-how. Some specialists have even steered Hamas and different Palestinian teams couldn’t have acted alone and steered backing from hostile powers.

Yesterday’s dramatic occasions come in opposition to a background of hopeful hypothesis about the potential of Saudi Arabia and Israel reaching an historic peace settlement, brokered by the Individuals.

It was hailed as momentous – the tip of hostilities between the Arab world and Jewish state. Then, from nowhere, got here the brand new battle.

Mr Netanyahu has informed Israel that it’s ‘at warfare’ with Hamas and has ordered a call-up of reservists.

The Israeli Prime Minister additionally ordered the navy to clear the infiltrated cities of Hamas terrorists who remained locked in gunfights with Israeli troopers.

Comparisons to the Yom Kippur Warfare, one of the crucial traumatic moments in Israeli historical past, sharpened criticism of Mr Netanyahu and his far-Proper allies, who had campaigned on extra aggressive motion in opposition to threats from Gaza.

Political commentators lambasted the Authorities over its failure to foresee what gave the impression to be a Hamas assault unseen in its stage of planning and co-ordination.

The phobia assaults come at a time of historic division inside Israel over Mr Netanyahu’s proposal to overtake the judiciary. Mass protests over the plan have despatched a whole lot of 1000’s of Israeli demonstrators on to the streets and prompted a whole lot of reservists to keep away from volunteer obligation – turmoil that has raised fears over the navy’s battlefield readiness.

Final evening, tens of millions of Israelis had been hunkering down in protected rooms, sheltering from rocket explosions and ongoing gun-battles with Hamas terrorists.

Cities and cities emptied because the navy closed roads close to Gaza.

Within the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, simply two miles from the Gaza Strip, terrified residents who had been huddled indoors stated they may hear fixed gunfire echoing off buildings as firefights continued hours after the preliminary assault.

Mirjam Reijnen, a 42-year-old mom of three, who lives in Nahal Oz, stated: ‘With rockets we one way or the other really feel safer, understanding that now we have the Iron Dome and our protected rooms. However understanding that terrorists are strolling round communities is a distinct sort of concern.’

Israel has blockaded Gaza since Islamist group Hamas gained management of the territory in 2007 and the 2 have fought wars ever since.

In Gaza, the roar of rocket launches could possibly be heard final evening and residents reported armed clashes alongside the separation fence with Israel.

‘We’re afraid,’ Amal Abu Daqqa, stated as she left her home in Khan Younis. Others expressed disbelief on the infiltration into Israel. ‘It is sort of a dream. I nonetheless cannot imagine it,’ stated one Gaza shopkeeper.