(This article was originally published on www.Aish.com.)
Ten close relatives of Shaked Haran, a young Israeli lawyer, are being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. She is using every contact she can find tell the world about their plight and try and gain their freedom.
As Hamas’ bloodthirsty attack unfolded early in the morning on October 7, 2023, Shaked was at home in the Israeli city of Beersheba with her husband Yuval and two young sons, aged one and three. Shaked is eight months pregnant and was looking forward to celebrating the birth of her third child with her close-knit family, most of whom live about 35 miles away in the small farming community of Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Gaza border, where Shaked grew up.
Near daybreak, the peace throughout Israel was broken by the wail of air raid sirens. “Unfortunately, sirens are not such an unusual occurrence,” notes Rachel Gur, a friend of Shaked. It was Shabbat and the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, so Shaked and her husband didn’t turn on their phones as they went to synagogue and ate their holiday meal. For hours, they had no way of knowing about the terrible horror unfolding in her family’s home.
Kibbutz Be’eri was one of the first places targeted by Hamas on their day of terror. According to security videos, terrorists arrived at the kibbutz’s protective gate at around 6:30 AM, and broke through at four or five locations, shooting everyone they could find with automatic rifles. As terrorists went from house to house, they murdered children in front of mothers, and killed mothers before their crying children.
Many families rushed into their safe rooms. In order to flush out the Jewish families cowering inside these reinforced rooms, terrorists set houses on fire. “People faced a choice, either be burned to death, or go outside to be shot,” Rachel explains. By the end of the attack, about 10% of the kibbutz’s population had been tortured and murdered. Many were kidnapped and transported into Gaza.
Unbeknownst to Shaked, her family was desperately texting Shaked’s brother (who lives in Be’eri and happened to be out of town that weekend, along with his wife), letting him know that the entire family was huddling together in a bomb shelter while masked terrorists hunted Jews down throughout their kibbutz. At 7:30 AM, Shaked’s father sent a WhatsApp message saying, “There’re armed terrorists, masked terrorists, just swarming. We don’t think we’re gonna make it out alive.”
The last messages were sent about 10:30 or 11,” Rachel says. The family texted, “They are coming. We love you.” After that, her relatives’ phones went silent.
By the time Shaked learned of the attacks many hours later, her family’s homes had been burned to the ground, forcing her relatives out of their reinforced safe rooms. “Her brother updated her that her entire family was missing,” kidnapped at gunpoint, Rachel explains. Shaked and her husband raced to the kibbutz. Once the Israeli military secured the area, they scoured the wreckage for any remains of her family. They found nothing but the burned-out shells of their homes.
Many of the corpses of the kibbutz members were unrecognizable. Shaked gave rescue workers a DNA sample to match against the human remains on the kibbutz. “There were over 150 bodies found in the kibbutz,” Rachel explains. “They were decapitated, mutilated, cut into little pieces.” Shaked wasn’t a match for any of the remains. She and her brother used a phone tracking app to locate their relatives’ phones: the app showed they are currently in Gaza.
After phoning and phoning all of her kidnapped relatives’ telephones repeatedly, someone finally answered Shaked’s father’s phone on Sunday afternoon, October 8. Speaking in Arabic-accented Hebrew, the person said: “Hatuf” (“kidnapped” in Hebrew) then “Gilad Shalit”, the name of the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas in 2006, held captive for five years with no visits from the Red Cross, in violation of international law, and finally freed in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 terrorist prisoners. His last work was “Hamas.”
The whereabouts of Avshalam Haran, Shaked’s father, and her other relatives remain unknown. Only Shaked’s grandmother survived the attack wasn’t taken; she is now staying with Shaked and her family in Beersheba.
After the attacks, Shaked recorded an English language video plea for help, telling the world: “Almost all my family were taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza. My father, my mother, my sister, her husband, and both of their young children: my niece that is three years old, and my nephew that is eight years old. My aunt, and my cousin that is twelve years old, and another and another aunt and uncle. My uncle is disabled and he was taken also with his caregiver to Gaza after their houses were burned down completely. We haven’t heard from them since Saturday noon. The last we heard they were kidnapped to Gaza. We have no idea where they are now and how they are safe or if they are together or if the children are with my sister. We don’t know anything.”
Several of her relatives have dual European citizenships and Shaked is trying to ask those nations (Germany, Austria and Italy) to exert diplomatic pressure on Hamas to free her relatives who are their citizens of their countries. “We are trying to reach anyone who has any influence or leverage in Gaza to help get her family back,” Rachel said.
Pray for the well-being of these hostages - and the other 190 Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas. Exert pressure on your elected representatives to demand their immediate release.
Please pray for the speedy release of Shaked’s relatives:
By Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
