The granddaughter of an elderly woman taken hostage by Hamas has warned she is without medicine and “in a lot of pain”.
Footage showed Yaffa Adar being hustled across the border into Gaza on Saturday on a golf cart, surrounded by gunmen.
The 85-year-old is among hundreds of Israeli civilians and soldiers being held hostage after Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza on Saturday.
Adva Adar told Sky News that she is “an amazing woman and an amazing grandmother” who had appeared “very strong” in the video shared around the world.
But speaking to our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall, Ms Adar said her family are gravely concerned about what will happen next.
“We’re shocked, it hurts in every inch of our bodies,” she said. “We’re very scared for her, she’s ill, and of course she doesn’t have her medicine with her.
“We don’t even know how long she can survive without her medicine. What we do know is that without her medicine she’s in a lot of pain.
“Hopefully she’s alive, but she’s suffering every minute.”
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Ms Adar described her grandmother as a “very positive, very funny woman”, adding: “She likes to enjoy her life, she likes to help us enjoy our life – to cuddle us, to take care of us.”
When asked if she had a message for Hamas, she said abducting innocent people trying to live their lives was “not human”.
“They need to come back home,” Ms Adar said. “The situation might be hard, but there’s no reason in the world that elderly women and kids and babies get kidnapped. There’s no reason, and bring them back home. Whatever you do, just bring them back home.”
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Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al Qanoua has told the AP news agency its fighters had captured more Israeli hostages as recently as Monday morning.
The militant group – which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government – wants all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel to be freed in exchange.
On Saturday, when the unprecedented assault began, Hamas fighters abducted partygoers fleeing a rave from the kibbutz of Re’im near Gaza.
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Social media footage showed dozens of people running through fields and on a road as gunshots were heard, and at least 260 bodies have been recovered from the site.
According to Hamas, some Israeli hostages and their captors have been killed in airstrikes since the weekend.
But the international community is calling for calm.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said: “The priority right now is for the aggression by Hamas to stop. The hostages need to be released and we need to see the overall de-escalation of the situation.”
