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.
Israeli here:
Hammasb (not the Palestiniens, Hammas) knew exactly who they murder. There is no excuse to wash their hand.
So then Israel (not it's people, but the military) know exactly who they murder now? So when they now and in the past murder civilians there's also no excuse?
Edit: also, aside from all that. I'm truly sorry this happened to your country and your people. I wish you all peace and an end to the bloodshed.
"It wasn’t a settlement at all."
Your entire country is a settlement.
There are Palestinians that are older than your "state".
Palestine became a state at the same time. there was never a Palestine before that.
Palestine isn't a state. It never became it state. It never has been a state.
lmao that's just as BS as saying that Israel isn't a state
It’s slightly older, it became a British mandate state in 1920.
A British Mandate isn't a state though.
Why not
Because it was still basically part of Britain, not independent. Like Canada wasn't it's own country until 1867 when we were made independent from British control.
A state doesn’t need to be independent. Texas isn’t independent. Chechnya isn’t independent.
We are currently using the word state for it's sovereign meaning given the context of this conversation, not for it's meaning as a part of a country. In the context of this conversation state is equivalent to country.
Yeah the area has always been a provincial administrative division but I'm pretty sure the last time there was a sovereign state controlling that general area, it was a Crusader kingdom. Before then, it was Judea before the Roman conquest. Relying on historical sovereignty isn't a very good argument since the area wasn't sovereign before 1948, and it was divided by UN mandate in 1948.
Every country is a settlement, you're really not making a point.
Look into the chain of events that caused Israeli/Palestinian enmity, then what caused those events, and so forth. You'll find the only innocent side here are the civilians.