The last time Roni Eshel’s family heard from her was a brief text message Saturday morning that the Israeli teenager sent to her mother, Sharon.
“Hello mother, I’m fine. I’m busy. I love you,” wrote Eshel, a 19-year-old Israeli Defense Forces soldier who was stationed at a military base in Nahal Oz, near Gaza.
That was around 9:30 a.m., about three hours after Hamas gunmen stormed the heavily fortified Israeli border under a hail of rockets, massacring civilians and kidnapping hostages as they went.
It wasn’t unusual for Eshel’s unit to be busy; They are always busy, his uncle, Elad Levy, told the Post from his home in the suburbs outside Tel Aviv.
But the family also knew that this was no ordinary day.
They quickly lost contact with the soldier, who was in her second year of mandatory military service.
They haven’t heard from her since.
Roni Eshel, a 19-year-old Israeli serving in the IDF, remains missing after Hamas invaded her military base near the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Facebook / Roni Eshel Eshel (right) with her family. The teenager disappeared after the attack, her uncle said. Facebook/Eyal Eshel
“You know, think about the mother and the father,” Levy, 49, said of her sister-in-law Sharon and her husband, Eyal. “They know her baby is in danger. They don’t know where she is.”
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel.
“What is she like? Is she suffering? Is she injured? Was she kidnapped by Hamas?” he asked. “Maybe she is injured, needs help, and can still be saved? These are the kinds of things we talk about.”
“We tried calling his phone and we tried to reach him, but we couldn’t,” Levy, a father of three who lived on the Upper East Side for more than a decade, told The Post.
At least 1,000 Israeli citizens have been killed since Hamas launched its attack on Saturday. ZUMAPRESS.com
“It just went offline around 9:30 a.m.”
The IDF told the family Wednesday morning that they have officially listed Eshel as missing, meaning they cannot find her, but she does not appear to be dead or injured.
It was still difficult news to digest.
Eshel’s family is desperately searching for her. Facebook/Eyal Eshel
But Levy said the family, which includes Roni’s two teenage brothers, has pressed on in a desperate attempt to locate the missing girl.
“They haven’t slept in four days,” said Levy, a former investment banker and Columbia University graduate who returned to Israel in 2011 to be near his family.
“They barely eat… You know, they’re devastated,” he continued. “But at the same time, they are resilient and determined to find Roni and free her.”
Relatives are working every contact they have, visiting every hospital and watching every gruesome video Hamas releases, searching in vain for any sign of Eshel.
“We’re just focusing on what we can do,” Levy said. “Whatever we have control over, chasing any information. And we will leave no stone unturned.”
When Hamas launched the savage attack, which sparked a war that has already killed more than a thousand people on each side and wounded many thousands more, Eshel was stationed in the base’s heavily fortified command center, Levy said.
When the Hamas attackers realized that they could not break into the building with weapons or grenades, they used fire to carry out their diabolical work.
“They started burning the command post with the people inside,” Levy said.
Within minutes, thick black smoke filled the room, blinding the dozen soldiers inside and choking them with acrid fumes.
A soldier broke a window and several escaped. Others did not do so and died in the assault.
And some, like Eshel, simply disappeared.
At least 22 Americans have been killed during the Hamas attack. AP
“They were not found, they are not in hospitals, they were not found around the base,” Levy said. “They didn’t find their bodies… That’s what we know.”
But the family refuses to believe the worst. And her parents are showing a strength that Levy said he’s never seen before.
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: how we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after seizing the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins the Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches largest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed, more than 3,000 wounded and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities. .
Hamas terrorists were seen taking women hostage and parading them down the street in gruesome videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised that Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report that at least 1,050 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,000 injured.
“They are like lions,” he marveled.
They want their daughter’s story to come to light, she said, because the public needs to know the bloody toll the attack has taken on their homeland.
An Israeli soldier walks past a house destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri.AP Hamas fighters entered southern Israel and launched thousands of rockets on Saturday, launching the biggest attack on the Jewish state in 50 years .AFP via Getty Images
“What happened on Saturday was genocide,” Levy said. “That’s how we see it. “These are crimes against humanity.”
“We have a Roni,” he said. “But there are another 2,000 Ronis in Israel. We demand that all Western countries in the world demand the immediate release of all hostages, unconditionally.”
“We need the world to understand that they have to support us, unequivocally,” he continued. “We need to demolish Hamas the same way we demolished ISIS.”
Hamas terrorists surround a truck allegedly carrying a captured Israeli after crossing the Khan Yunis border fence with Israel.dpa/picture Alliance via Getty Images
“No one negotiated with ISIS, no one talked to them,” he said. “We just killed them all. “We are going to do the same with Hamas.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn