'The terrorists are in the house'

May 2024 · 3 minute read

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An Israeli mother and her two young daughters were among the more than 100 civilians taken hostage by Hamas terrorists who invaded the country in a bloody sneak attack Saturday.

Doron Asher had gone with her young girls to visit their grandmother in the village Nir Oz near the Gaza border over the weekend when Hamas militants descended on the home, Reuters reported.

Terrified, she called her husband, Yoni, back in central Israel, but the phone cut out, and he hasn’t heard from her since.

“She told me the terrorists are in the house,” and that was it, Yoni said.

Tracking Doron’s phone, her location showed her as being across the border in Gaza, Yoni said.

His fears were later confirmed when he saw video on social media that clearly showed Doron and their daughters loaded at gunpoint into a cart along with other hostages and being taken away by Hamas militants.

Doron Asher (left) was on the phone with her husband, Yoni (right), when she was taken hostage along with her little girls. Instagram/Doron Katz Asher
The couple’s two young girls were snatched by Hamas and thrown into a cart with other hostages, too. Instagram/Doron Katz Asher

“I surely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart and terrorists of Hamas all around them,” Yoni said.

“My little two girls, they are only babies, they are not even 5 years old and 3 years old. … I don’t know in what terms they are captive. I don’t know what happened to them.”

Yoni issued a desperate plea that his family be kept safe — and even offered himself up as a hostage in exchange for their return.

“I want to ask of Hamas, ‘Don’t hurt them. Don’t hurt little children. Don’t hurt women.

” ‘If you want me instead, I’m willing to come.’ “

Yoni was able to identify his wife, daughters and mother-in-law in a video he found on social media.
Yoni begged Hamas not to harm his family in an emotional plea and offered to exchange himself for them. Instagram/Doron Katz Asher

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed since Hamas fighters stormed into the country Saturday, leaving a path of bloody destruction.

Thousands have also been wounded.

Numerous videos have emerged showing women, old and young, being carried away screaming on motorcycles and in cars and loaded into trucks and wagons.

Survivors of a music festival targeted by Hamas said the militants were shooting the legs of concertgoers to keep them from fleeing.

Doron is also a German citizen, according to the Independent, and her family has called on officials in the country to aid in the safe return of her and the girls.

She is not the only German Israeli to be drawn into the conflict.

Shani Louk, a German tattoo artists, was positively identified as a woman whose body was seen stripped naked, thrown into the back of a pickup truck, and paraded around by leering Hamas fighters. It remains unclear whether she is alive or dead.

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