British families have described the scale of the atrocities committed in Israel by Hamas terrorists 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 in which 1,200 Iraelis were killed and 1,400 Palestinians have died in retaliatory strikes.
Noam Sagi and Sharon Lifschitz, both based in 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.
“On Saturday morning, the kibbutz woke up to a massacre, a second holocaust,” said Mr Sagi at a press conference in Westminster, 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 (Lucy North/PA)
(PA Wire)
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.
Spy planes, two Royal Navy ships and helicopter are all being dispatched to off their help from tomorrow.
Israel-Hamas war – follow live updates here
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 leaving Israel as a “precautionary measure”. BA has cancelled all it flights to Tel Aviv
:: Israel 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 it 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 and told Benjamin Netanyahu he understood ‘the harrowing echoes that Hamas’ massacres carry for Israeli Jews’ and 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 holding 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 burned 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.
The UN warned that crucial supplies were running dangerously low in the Gaza Strip
(AFP via Getty Images)
Back in London, Mr Sagi and Ms Lifschitz showed reporters photographs of people who remain unaccounted for in Israel, including a six-month-old baby.
There was confusion as the poster named a missing baby as Ariel, while a social media account of the State of Israel published the same photograph of the baby, giving the name Kfir.
Mr Sagi and Ms Lifschitz said their elderly parents who 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’
(AFP via Getty Images)
Ms Lifschitz, an artist and academic, who also grew up on the kibbutz where his 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 10 am 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 but 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)
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/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.