The sister of a Hamas hostage has recalled the desperate minute-by-minute WhatsApp conversation she had with her brother as militants stormed his kibbutz.
Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri and two children were kidnapped by the group, said he first messaged to let his family know they were heading to the safe room.
Being on the border with Gaza, missiles attacks are a regular occurrence, she explained.
But they later heard Hamas had stormed the kibbutz, shooting civilians and burning down houses.
“I told him to keep the kids quiet,” she told Sky News. “He said ‘we’re trying, but it’s hard. They are babies’.
“Then he said he could hear a lot of gunfire right outside their house, and terrorists screaming in Arabic.
“I told them again to keep it quiet. And then he said ‘I’m terrified. I feel like it’s the end’. He wrote to me and my father and mother said ‘I love you’. I wrote to him, ‘shut up… don’t say that. Don’t say good bye’.”
Ten minutes later, her brother wrote to say Hamas were coming in, and her family never heard from them again, Ms Bibas Levy said.
She said she discovered from photos and videos released by Hamas that they had been captured, but they are yet to learn of their fate.
“We don’t know anything about where they’ve been kept, if the baby has food… we don’t know if they’re being tortured, we don’t know anything.”
Asked if the release of two hostages at the weekend gives her hope, Ms Bibas Levy said she felt “mixed emotions”.
“Of course we’re happy for them, but it’s all part of the Hamas propaganda. I don’t think it’s a step towards any kind of negotiation.”
On what her message would be for the Hamas militants keeping her family hostage, she said: “Keep them safe, we love them, we miss them, we want them back.”
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