Israelis make desperate pleas for missing relatives, possibly abducted to be bargaining chips for Hamas

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, abducted dozens of Israelis, civilians and soldiers during its deadly raids across the border Saturday, taking them back to the Palestinian coastal enclave as hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Israeli authorities have not yet provided specific details about the number or identities of the kidnapped victims, but military officials have said they include older people and children. At least 150 Israelis were taken hostage by Palestinian militants, according to a preliminary assessment shared by a senior Israeli military official.

Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas’ armed wing, claimed in a statement on Telegram that the militant group had hidden “dozens of hostages” in “safe places and the tunnels of the resistance.”

Amid widespread public criticism about the apparent confusion and lack of reliable information on the hostages in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced the appointment of Gal Hirsch, a retired general, as coordinator for the captives and missing.

The military and the police also opened a joint center for families to register missing relatives, asking them to bring photos and items from which they can gather DNA samples.

Here’s what to know about Israel’s and Hamas’ history with hostages.

Hamas may try to use hostages to bargain for prisoners held by Israel.

Thousands of Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons, many of them convicted of security offenses or involvement in terrorism.

In the past, Israeli governments have made deals to release large numbers of prisoners to ensure the return of its citizens or the remains of soldiers.

Muhammad Deif, the leader of Hamas’ military wing, cited the detention of thousands of Palestinian militants in Israeli jails as one of the reasons for Saturday’s assault on Israel.

The seizure of so many hostages suggests that Hamas may want to hold them as bargaining chips for a prisoner swap, and possibly to use them as human shields as Israel strikes back in Gaza.

Israel has gone to great lengths to recover prisoners.

Israel was long traumatized by the capture of Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was seized in a cross-border raid in 2006 and held captive by Hamas in Gaza for five years. After a broad public campaign put pressure on the Israeli government, he was freed in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis.

The seizing of hostages has even triggered a war. In the summer of 2006, Israeli forces gave chase after Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant organization, abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The ensuing deadly confrontation turned into a monthlong conflict.

The remains of the two abducted soldiers were returned to Israel in 2008 as part of a prisoner exchange. To recover the soldiers’ bodies, Israel handed over five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, who had been held for nearly three decades after being convicted in the 1979 killings of a police officer, a civilian and his daughter in an Israeli coastal town.

But prisoner swaps have become politically contentious in Israel, with some experts saying that such deals only invite the next kidnapping.

Since 2014, Hamas has been holding the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in the 50-day war of that summer, as well as two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza that year by foot and are believed to be alive.

Negotiations through mediators for the return of the soldiers’ bodies and the civilians have so far come to naught. Hamas has demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for information about the captives. Israel has refused those terms.

What is known about those who may be held hostage now?

In the chaotic aftermath of Saturday’s surprise assault, most information about those who may have been taken hostage has come from the people searching for their missing relatives and friends.

Some of the people appear to have been taken from their homes in the Israeli border communities that were overrun by Hamas militants on Saturday. Others appear to have been seized from a wooded area near the border where they had spent the night at a festival.

Distraught and fearful, their relatives have turned to news organizations and social media platforms, sharing photographs of those who are missing and sharing videos online to solicit clues.

One man, Yoni Asher, said he saw his wife, two small daughters and his mother-in-law in a video being led away by Hamas gunmen from the mother-in-law’s home in a village near the Gaza border. He said he had managed to track the location of his wife’s cellphone to Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Asher told Israeli television channels that he had tried calling police and other authorities all day Saturday, getting no answers.

“I don’t understand: Where is the state? Where is everybody?” he said, echoing the despair of many of the missing’s relatives.

Moshe Or told Ynet, a Hebrew news site, that his brother, Avinatan Or, and Avinatan’s partner, Noa Argamani, had been at the all-night music festival and tried to hide from the Palestinian gunmen who surrounded the partygoers and were shooting them. Or spoke by phone with the couple and they sent their location via WhatsApp. Despite his efforts to alert authorities, no rescuers arrived and all contact was lost.

Then, a video emerged showing Or’s brother being led by gunmen over open ground toward the Gaza Strip, along with Argamani, who had been placed on a motorbike and was seen pleading with her captors.

Yaakov Argamani, Noa’s father, broke down sobbing when discussing his only daughter’s abduction with Israel’s public broadcaster Sunday afternoon. Asked if he had any message for Hamas, Argamani said: Both Israelis and Palestinians “are children of the same God. Let’s make peace, but true peace.”

Adva Adar, a resident of Tel Aviv, said her grandmother Yaffa was believed to be held captive by Palestinian militants in Gaza, with other Israeli civilians and soldiers.

“She’s 85 years old,” Adar told reporters, sobbing, on a Zoom news conference hosted by the Jerusalem Press Club. “She’s innocent. She’s done nothing wrong, nor have the children, the babies, or the women or the men. They all need to come back home safe.”