Hostages in Israel update: Families of loved ones taken by Hamas share their horrific stories

Carmela Dan, 80; Ofer Kalderon, 50; Sahar Kalderon, 16; Noya Dan, 13; Erez Kalderon, 12

Carmela Dan has lived on the same kibbutz for 60 years, finding tranquillity in a community of several hundred people who shared meals in lush green gardens.

On Saturday, she hid in a safe room with her three grandchildren and son-in-law, Ofer Kalderon — the father of Sahar Kalderon and Erez Kalderon — while militants threw smoke grenades into homes trying to lure residents out, said her cousin Abbey Onn. 

Onn had been keeping tabs on the family via a WhatsApp chat when she suddenly stopped hearing from Dan and others after Israeli officials warned residents to stop using their cellphones.

Onn still had not heard from her relatives until Sunday, when a colleague said one of the children, Onn’s second cousin, had been spotted in an Instagram video posted by an influencer. It shows 12-year-old Erez Kalderon being manhandled by a militant as he appears to be taken captive. 

“I burst into tears. I started shaking,” Onn said. “I’m a mother of three. This is just every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Onn described her cousin, Dan, as one of the funniest, most generous people she has ever known. She and her family and neighbors frequently shared meals in the lush gardens of the kibbutz, Onn said. 

“She and her husband helped build this legacy and felt deeply connected to the land,” Onn said of Dan, whose husband died several years ago. 

“It was her kind of beauty,” she added.

Doron Asher Katz, 34; Efrat Katz, 67; Aviv Asher, 2; Raz Asher, 5

On Saturday, Israel resident Yoni Asher’s wife, Doron Katz, called him to say terrorists had descended on a home where she and her relatives were hiding. The last thing she told him, he said, was that the militants were armed and that she feared talking too loudly on the phone.

Later he watched on social media as a disturbing video emerged appearing to show his wife, two young daughters, ages 5 and 2, and his mother-in-law being taken by Hamas and crammed onto the back of a vehicle. He believed his father-in-law had also been abducted. 

“The worst has happened — they discovered them and took them,” Asher said.

His wife and mother-in-law both have German citizenship, and he has been in touch with the German embassy, but he remains frustrated by the lack of updates.

“I just want my little baby girls back home with my wife,” he said.

Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, and her 9-month-old and 3-year-old boys

Yifat Zailer has been desperate for news about her six missing relatives for days. 

Zailer said a friend messaged her a video showing Hamas militants capturing her cousin Silberman-Bibas, 30, as she clutched her two small boys, who are 9 months and 3 years old. 

She presumes that Silberman-Bibas’ 37-year-old husband and her parents, Yosi and Margit Silberman, were also kidnapped, because their bodies were not among the hundreds found in the area.

Zalier said she has not heard from Silberman-Bibas or her husband or parents. 

“I miss my family. I need them close,” she said, breaking down in sobs. “I need to know they’re OK.”

Zailer said she understands that Israeli authorities are most likely consumed by the “magnitude of the event” and are struggling to keep civilians informed. But she remains desperate for news.

“Families are crying for help,” she said. “Families are looking for their loved ones.”

Noa Argamani, 25; Avinatan Or

In a viral video recorded Saturday morning, Noa Argamani screams and reaches for her boyfriend as Hamas militants force her on the back of a motorcycle during a music festival, driving off into the desert.

Her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, was overtaken by another group of men and is presumed to have been kidnapped. 

Her father, Yaacov Argamani, struggled to breathe as he told reporters that Noa, his only child, is sweet and loving.

Asked what he would tell his daughter’s captors, he said through heavy sobs: “Please, please, I beg you, don’t hurt her.”