Families of hostages taken by Hamas militants are desperate amid threats of execution

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The death toll from fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters is climbing. More than 1,200 Israelis are known dead after that surprise attack over the weekend. That attack has prompted a massive military response by Israel that has included some 1,300 airstrikes on Gaza. Authorities there say at least a thousand have been killed. Leila, you're in Jerusalem right now. From what you're seeing and hearing, are you getting the impression that this fighting is going to get even worse?

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Yeah. I mean, I'm in Jerusalem, Michel, where it's relatively quiet. You can hear a few buses that are still taking tourists out, although the hotel I'm in front of is closed because so many have left. But there's no question that it's very different in the south, where the Israeli military has said it's secured the border with Gaza. And it appears they are now preparing for a ground invasion that will, quote, "change the reality" there. And there's been no cessation of rocket attacks coming in from Gaza. And now the first plane carrying advanced U.S. armaments since this war broke out landed in Israel, according to the Israeli military.

MARTIN: And, Leila, we just seem to be seeing more and more horrific images emerging from that weekend attack by Hamas.

FADEL: Yeah. I mean, that's right. The attack started Saturday, but every day we hear new accounts of what are being described as massacres in locations across the south of Israel - the latest, a kibbutz called Kafr Aza that was retaken by Israeli forces. And inside, they found bodies of civilians in their homes and strewn in the streets along with bodies of Hamas militants who'd breached these towns, armed. Of course, Michel, it's much harder to tell the stories out of Gaza because journalists who weren't already there aren't allowed in now. Gaza is under a new siege that has cut off food, fuel, water and electricity. Israeli airstrikes have wiped out parts of entire families in what the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem calls a criminal policy of revenge.

MARTIN: You know, and in the midst of all of this, there are some 150 hostages that are believed to have been taken to Gaza.

FADEL: Yeah. I mean, it feels like everyone here is one to two degrees of separation away from someone that's missing. In text chats on social media, families are frantically trying to find any information about their loved ones. And that's how I ended up at the home of Ido Dan.

In the kitchen, the dishes are piled up in the sink, and the playroom is set up for a party. Balloons that look like cupcakes float in the air. Shiny streamers dangle, and a red heart is fastened to the staircase railing.

IDO DAN: Saturday was my twin girls' birthday. They're 6 years old.

FADEL: There's been no time to clean since five of Ido Dan's family members disappeared on the day Hamas militants breached the Israeli border and killed so many. Before it started that Saturday morning, it was a flurry of preparation for Dan's family at his home just north of Tel Aviv.

DAN: My wife was preparing this table with all the - you know, the chocolates and stuff, and I saw my phone started, like, (imitating phone buzzing).

FADEL: It was an alert for rocket fire, which is common in parts of Israel. He and his family were fine.

DAN: So then as a routine, I just asked my family in the south, which are on the border with Gaza, are you OK? And usually what they say is, like, oh, we didn't sleep all night. We woke up very early. Now we're in the safe rooms in the shelters. That's what they usually say. But this time it was different.

FADEL: He pulls out his phone.

DAN: I'll just show it to you.

FADEL: Dan opens his family group texts.

DAN: So I'm asking them here, are you OK? And they go, very bad. We're being attacked with terrorists inside the kibbutz. We didn't really grasp what's going on. And then she goes, I hope we'll survive.

FADEL: His cousin is the first to warn the others in the text chain, so his family holed up in safe rooms in different homes. They heard gunfire, screaming. They smelled burning. He scrolled through hours of time-stamped texts.

DAN: (Reading) 8:59, this is an atrocity. It's horrible. It's horror. I love you all. I'm saying goodbye. There is no way to know. They're shooting here. And she sent us this heart, and she says, (reading in non-English language), which means I'm not sure we survive this.

FADEL: By the end of the day, his aunt, Carmela Dan, was gone. So were two of her grandchildren, Sahar Kalderon and her brother, Erez, along with their father, Ofer. Carmela's other grandchild, Noya, a 12-year-old with special needs, is also missing.

DAN: The day after, we saw the videos from the Hamas, they were walking in the kibbutz with the guns and just shooting, like ducks, people and kids, whole families.

FADEL: He and his family kept searching online for any sign of their loved ones. Then one of the children, Erez, was spotted by his older sister.

DAN: She said, I was watching Instagram, and then I see a video of the Hamas, and I see Erez there, and they're holding him. (Crying) They're capturing him. It's him.

FADEL: Dan plays the video for me.

So we're watching - I've seen this. So they're walking him away.

The boy Dan showed me earlier in a smiling picture with a gap between his two front teeth is in the video. His arms are held by a militant, and he's being dragged away.

DAN: What it says in Arabic is don't hurt him, don't hurt him. We're going to take him to Gaza.

FADEL: Don't hurt him.

DAN: Don't hurt him.

FADEL: So does that make you feel, like, anything?

DAN: Yeah, like it's a precious bargaining chip.

FADEL: That's why Dan believes his family are hostages with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. His five family members are among dozens - young music lovers who were dancing in the desert, children, a Holocaust survivor. And now the threat of execution looms. The Hamas military wing has said they'd kill one hostage for each Palestinian home that's targeted without a warning. So far, they haven't acted publicly on that threat. I ask if Dan is worried that they might actually do this.

DAN: I think I'm just choosing to ignore this. I think that those hostages are the most precious thing that Hamas has right now. And I think that they will keep them safe.

FADEL: But something, he says, has changed.

DAN: Maybe we should recalculate all our predictions and assumptions about the Hamas because it's totally different this time. In many ways, I think that Hamas is ISIS. We saw such killings and murders and ruthless humiliation of bodies. We saw it only with ISIS.

MARTIN: Leila, that's - that is so hard. Does this show a major shift with Hamas and its tactics?

FADEL: Yeah. I mean, they were notorious for suicide bombings on buses in the 2000s, but those were small-scale operations compared to this highly choreographed invasion by over a thousand fighters. And Israeli officials are now frequently comparing it to ISIS, which they didn't in the past. And it's also coming in the context of a powder-keg reality, where I am right now, a far-right government in Israel that's expanded settlements in the occupied West Bank, a year that's been deadlier for Palestinians in the West Bank than any year since 2005, a time where there is no peace process or political solution to end the occupation of Palestinians. And there is real concern that this war could lead to regional conflict.

MARTIN: Leila, thanks for this reporting. And we're going to hear from you later this hour.

FADEL: Thanks, Michel.

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