Desperate families of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas – including baby and four-year-old seen being taken away with their weeping mother – break down on live TV as they make heartbreaking appeals for their rescue

Desperate families of Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas – including a baby and a four-year-old taken away with their crying mother – have been shattered on live television as they made heartbreaking calls for their rescue.

At a press conference with other families who lost loved ones in the Hamas attack on the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7, a family member couldn’t hold back tears as she said she had seen a video of her cousin being taken by the terrorists.

At least 203 people are believed to have been taken hostage after Hamas’ surprise attack more than a week ago.

The woman, who introduced herself at the press conference as Efrat, is related to Shiri Bibas Silverman. She said her cousin and her young family had been taken by Hamas.

Video of Shiri holding her two red-haired sons, Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, covered in a blanket as they were taken from their home went viral after the terrorists’ bloody invasion.

Efrat said the family is “surrounded by terrorists” and “covered in blood, not their own.”

“This is the only sign of life we ​​have from them,” she said.

She said that tomorrow will be a fortnight since they were abducted before she realized that one of the children, Kfir, will have aged ten months since his abduction.

She said: ‘He was born on January 18th. I don’t want to be sitting here at a press conference in two months’ time celebrating his first birthday.

‘On Monday we received a photo of Yarden, their father, being driven into the Gaza Strip on a motorcycle. He is seriously injured in the head. We don’t know anything – we have no pictures of my aunt and uncle. We have only received confirmation that they are not among the dead and that they are probably there.

‘My aunt has severe Parkinson’s disease. She’s off her meds. I don’t know if the baby is on formula. He doesn’t eat well yet to survive.’

“This is torture,” she said.

She added: “They are innocent civilians, innocent children. In difficult circumstances. They are not a pawn or a game in a war. They must be released now.

‘This is crazy. This is a nightmare.’

In the video she seems unable to continue and puts her head in her hands.

Nine-year-old Ohad Munder was due to celebrate his birthday party this weekend before he went missing following Hamas’ bloody invasion on October 7.

“Unfortunately, he will not be able to celebrate his birthday,” Merav Raviv said at today’s press conference, adding that his mother had already sent the invitations.

She paid tribute to the missing boy who she described as ‘talented’ and ‘sporty’.

A gruesome video shows the moment an Israeli mother and her two young sons are dragged screaming from their home near the Gaza border by Hamas terrorists before disappearing.

Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, hid in a safe room with her husband Yarden and their children Kfir and Ariel when Israel was invaded by the terrorists on October 7.

Armed with only a small pistol, Yarden hoped to defend his family and their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz as villages were raided – in an attack that killed hundreds of Israelis and took dozens hostage.

The father texted relatives “I love you all” as they took shelter, while militants fired semi-automatic weapons outside their window, according to reports.

Half an hour later he wrote ominously “they’re coming in,” before communications stopped.

The family has not been heard from since, and Shiri’s parents, Yosi and Margit Silberman, who are in their late 60s, are also missing and feared kidnapped.

A video later emerged showing the distraught mother holding her two children as they are kidnapped, with no trace of their father, as shocked onlookers shout: “She’s got a baby.”

Images on social media of Shiri crying as she and her children are taken away by the terrorists have sparked fear among the Jewish community worldwide.

The mother’s expression of terror and photos of her innocent sons in happier times have been used by protesters around the world to illustrate the terror Hamas has inflicted on Israel.

Distraught Israelis at a vigil outside Downing Street in London held up photos of the mother and her boys being taken away, with one sign calling for: “Let the children go.”

Devastated relatives spoke of their horror at seeing the footage, with Shiri’s cousin Yosi telling Sky News that his relative’s disappearance has made him “want to fight”.

“The first time I saw the pictures I couldn’t believe it,” he said. ‘I couldn’t comprehend what I saw. When I looked at another photo, it was very clear that this was my cousin Shiri and the two little children.”

“My fear is that they have separated them, that they have separated them, that they have killed them, that they have been injured, that we will not see them again, that we will not even get any piece of information from them and that we will remain in this situation. forever empty.’

Shiri’s niece Yifat Zailer, who spoke to the New York Times, said she will not rest until her relatives return home.

‘I just hope they’re alive and together. And I want them home, with me, so I can hug them tight again,” she said.

“We feel like those responsible don’t know what to do because this is a situation we’ve never been in before. That is the feeling in Israel,” she added. “It’s a catastrophe.”

Other families were captured during the attack on Nir Oz.

Father-of-two Yoni Asher said he received a call from his panicked wife saying terrorists had invaded the house.

Doron Asher Katz, 34, was visiting her mother in the settlement with their two daughters, aged two and four, when Hamas attacked.

After losing contact with her, Asher saw a video on social media of them being loaded into a cart by militants.

“I definitely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of cart, and the Hamas terrorists all around them,” he said.

He was able to track his wife’s cell phone and saw that the location was in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.

He said, “My two little girls, they’re just babies, they’re not even five and three years old yet.

‘I don’t know in what terms they are imprisoned. I don’t know what happened to them.’

Mr. Asher appealed directly to Hamas not to hurt his family and even offered to exchange himself for their safe return.

Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continue and Israel’s defense minister has ordered troops to be ready for a ground attack on the Palestinian territory, although he has not said when it will begin.

More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes in the north and Gaza City after Israel ordered them to evacuate.

The airstrikes continued early Thursday across the territory, including in areas in the south that Israel had declared “safe zones.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt at the request of US President Joe Biden.

The war, which began on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed into Israel and Israel vowed to destroy the terrorist group, has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday that 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 12,500 others injured.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the first attack.