Palestinian terrorists seized dozens of Israeli civilian hostages on Saturday, holding some in Israel and dragging at least 50, including women and children, to Gaza.
The Palestinian terror attack happened on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the final day of the annual High Holy Day cycle.
The images and videos of women — and the corpses of women — being abused by Palestinian gunmen caused shock and anguish throughout Israel.
Most of these are too graphic to publish, and some cannot yet be confirmed. Some have been published by news wire agencies, with the identities of the victims concealed, as in the photo below.
Palestinian militants transport a reportedly captured Israeli woman by motorcycle, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. Palestinian militants had begun a “war” against Israel which they infiltrated by air, sea and land from the blockaded Gaza Strip on October 7, Israeli officials said, a major escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
One, however, was confirmed by CNN and others: a video of an Israeli woman, covered in blood and dirt, being dragged from the back of a jeep and shoved into the back seat by gunmen.
In another instance, a woman’s dead body was paraded on the back of a truck, nearly naked, under the boots of Palestinian gunmen as they shouted “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is Great!”). Her family confirmed that it was her.
As the Washington Post noted:
Tom Weintraub Louk, 30, told The Washington Post that her first cousin, Shani Louk, was missing after militants overran an outdoor dance party near Kibbutz Urim on Saturday morning.
As news of the attack circulated, family members tried to contact Shani, who is in her early 20s. “We knew she was in the party. She didn’t answer,” said Louk. Family members also failed to get through to her Mexican boyfriend.
Later in the morning, as videos of hostage-takings flew across social media, another cousin recognized Shani in one of them — in the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by armed militants. Louk has not been able to bring herself to watch the video, but Shani’s parents have. “We recognized her by the tattoos, and she has long dreadlocks,” she said.
Update: Another woman confirmed kidnapped was 85-year-old grandmother Yaffa Adar:
The sight of women — and children — being abducted, killed, and abused will not soon be forgotten by Israelis — and will likely fuel public support for a war effort that eliminates Hamas as a political and terrorist entity.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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