They exchanged text messages and emojis. Brief status updates with words of encouragement. A picture of the beloved family dog “Tutsi.”

Until no more messages came.

And then, Cindy Flash, an American, and her Israeli husband Igal vanished into the violence, presumed kidnapped by Hamas.

Four days after Hamas attacked Israel, more than 100 Israelis and potentially dozens of foreign nationals are thought to be held captive in the Gaza Strip. At least 14 U.S. citizens have been killed and an unknown number are still unaccounted for.

Flash, 67, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of them. She lives in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, where some of the most harrowing and grisly stories have been emerging during the last few days.

“They are breaking down the safe room door,” Flash said in one of her final messages to her daughter Keren, 34. “We need someone to come by the house right now.” She had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.

Keren described her mother, who worked as an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the “sweetest biggest heart,” who everyone knew and loved, and who had spent a lifetime advocating for the rights of Palestinians, including those who live in Gaza where she may now be held.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      People who don’t blame Hamas for building HQs in fucking hospitals are too dumb to deserve a voice in this conflict

      • medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        There aren’t any Hamas fighters in those hospitals unless they’re among the wounded. MSF put up a report yesterday about hospitals being hit by missiles and there’s been a bunch of reports of entire high-rise residences getting bombed today. Hamas is not as ubiquitous as your ilk seem to think and the overwhelming majority of the people in Gaza are civilians with no food, no water, no fuel, no medical supplies, and nowhere to go to escape Israel’s genocidal artillery.

      • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        More apologetics for Netanyahu killing civilians that you deem worth killing. You are fuckin sick in the head dude. Stop makin excuses for people committing war crimes no matter the side.

        • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          KILLING civilians happens in every war, no matter how just.

          The issue is who is being TARGETED.

          Hamas targets civilians. Israel targets Hamas.

          Hamas hides among civilians, to use them as human shields.

          So when Israel targets Hamas, of course civilians are going to die. That’s on Hamas’s hands as well.

          If each faction had the ability to only kill exactly who they wanted, Israel would be killing only militants, and Hamas would still be killing children.

          • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            CUTTING OFF ALL WATER FOOD AND ELECTRICITY IS TARGETING CIVILIANS FOR DEATH. Sorry for the all caps but you seem to not be getting the idea otherwise. I don’t care if civilian A or B is killed by either side, it is a war crime.

            • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              If they are truly so cut off from water that someone dies of thirst, you’ll definitely have a good point. But if this is a short term tactic that gives them a tactical edge over Hamas, that’s a different story.