Yahel, Lianne and Noiya (Image: Unpixs)
Yahel Sharabi, 13, disappeared after militants stormed Kibbutz Be’eri and killed her Bristol-born mother Lianne.
Her family were told of Yahel’s death yesterday and said she was executed. Her sister Noiya, 16, and the girls’ Israeli father Eli, 51, are still missing.
Relatives in Britain have not heard from them since a terror-filled, truncated message was
sent as masked gunmen raided
the small community near the Gaza border.
The killers picked off cowering families as they burst into homes armed with hand grenades and Kalashnikov rifles.
Panicked Lianne, 48, sent a flurry of texts after hearing a volley of gunfire as militants started their killing spree on October 7.
The teenagers’ uncle, Eli’s brother-in-law Raz Matalon, 53, said Lianne was briefly able to tell him about the unfolding horror.
He said: “She wrote that she heard gunshots outside her home. That people were screaming and calling in Arabic. And people
running all over.
“So they stayed in the safe room until they heard the terrorists had entered the house and tried to open the door.”
UK family members feared the worst after Lianne’s initial text communication ended abruptly.
Raz said Yahel had been murdered and her other uncle Yossi, 53, kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Lianne’s family called her “a beloved daughter, sister, mother, aunt and friend who enriched the lives of all those lucky enough to have known and loved her”.
They added: “She lived a beautiful life and will be sorely missed by the heartbroken family and friends she leaves behind.”
British-Israeli national Benjamin Trakeniski, 32, was mown down by Hamas gunmen in Be’eri as he helped his neighbours flee.
At least six Britons were murdered. A further 10 are missing.
‘Soldiers saw two big blood stains.
They saw the dog lying there dead’
Other UK nationals killed were Bernard Cowan from Glasgow, Danny Darlington, who was living in Germany and visiting Israel, and London-born Israeli soldier Nathanel Young.
Another, Jake Marlowe, was working as a security guard at the Nova Music Festival stormed by Hamas jihadists at dawn.
Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said Britain was doing “everything” possible to save UK hostages being held as human shields by Hamas.
He said: “We don’t know where [the missing family is] are and we are thinking of them all the time. The British Government will do everything we possibly can to get them back, as soon as we possibly can. We mourn the six British hostages we know who have died and we are extremely concerned about the fate and the state of the other 10. We pray they are alive.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs the slaughter was a “pogrom” and Britain “absolutely supports Israel’s right to defend itself”. The Kibbutz Be’eri community of 1,100 people was woken at 6.30am by an alarm indicating an imminent rocket attack.
Lianne, husband Eli and Noiya (Image: Unpixs)
Terrorists murdered more than 120 people, including children, and kidnapped others. They set homes on fire, killed occupants who they tried to escape, then looted and destroyed what they could. Raz said Israeli soldiers who entered the family house three days later saw “two big blood stains on the floor.
They saw the dog lying there dead”. Relatives fear Noiya and Eli have been taken to Gaza as hostages and human shields against a retaliatory bombardment.
In chilling bodycam footage, rampaging Hamas militants bark orders in Arabic as they run from door to door. Families begging for mercy are gunned down – some after being told to escape. Emily Hand, eight, died after going to her friend’s house for a sleepover.
After days waiting for news, her father Tom said: “Two people from the kibbutz, doctors, psychiatrists, social workers told me softly, but quickly, because they have a lot of people to get through.
“She was dead. I knew she wasn’t alone, she wasn’t in Gaza. She wasn’t in a dark room filled with Christ knows how many people, pushed around, terrified every minute of every day, possibly for years to come.
“So death was a blessing. In this crazy world, here was me hoping my daughter was dead.”
Israel said the Hamas cross-border attacks left at least 1,300 dead.
Mr Sunak said those killed and missing came from more than 30 countries and the assault was “an existential strike at the very idea of Israel as a safe homeland for the Jewish people”.
He added: “We should call it by its name: it was a pogrom.”
