IDF soldiers are seen following the liberation of Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel from Hamas terrorists. Photo: Reuters/lia Yefimovich

Family members of the more than 150 hostages taken by Hamas delivered harrowing testimony at the United Nations on Friday, ahead of a Security Council meeting to discuss the invasion of southern Israel by terrorists from the Islamist organization who killed 1,300 Israelis and wounded more than 3,000. 

The families of the victims described receiving phone calls and text messages from their loved ones as they were being forcibly seized by the terrorist group.

“I got a phone call from my wife. Scared. Whispering. Terrified. Saying that she’s hearing gunshots and people are entering the house. I didn’t want to risk her. So I told her to disconnect the phone and that was the last call,” said Yoni Asher, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Negev, whose wife and two daughters have been taken hostage in Gaza. 

Asher believes that his wife’s parents were taken into Gaza as well during the attack on the kibbutz, located on the border with Gaza. Hamas terrorists murdered 20 members of the kibbutz and seized another 80 as hostages, among them an 85-year-old grandmother and a six-month-old baby. 

“You’re talking to a man who is not crying because I don’t know if I’ve got any more tears left,” Asher said. “I just want to approach whoever can hear me in the international community: Please bring back my baby girls.”

Other family members who gave testimony included Rabbi Burt Visotzky, whose 23-year-old cousin Hersh Goldberg-Polin was attending the Nova music festival in Re’im when Hamas attacked. Goldberg-Polin, who lost part of him arm during an explosion that accompanied the attack, is also a hostage in Gaza.

“Hersh sent two texts to his mom on that Saturday morning,” Rabbi Visotzky said. “The first, three words: ‘I love you.’ The second, two words: ‘I’m sorry.’”

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, who organized the event, said that the United Nations itself bore part of the blame for enabling Hamas.

“Hamas committed their large scale atrocity because they rely – and I’m sorry for what I’m about to say –  they rely on the UN, as it has done in the past, to come to their aid,” Erdan said. “They know that the moment after they brutally slaughter over 1,000 Israelis, some UN bodies will come running to Hamas’ rescue by trying to prevent Israel from obliterating its terror infrastructure. We cannot let the terrorists win.”

The UN on Thursday said that Israel had given the world body 24 hours to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of a presumed intensification of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. In a statement Friday, “the United Nations in Palestine” – the official name of their team on the ground – called on Israel to rescind the order. Israel in its public warning to civilians to evacuate did not specify a specific deadline.

Speaking at Friday’s event for the families of hostages, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield reiterated America’s support for Israel and desire for the hostages to be brought home safely.

“I cannot imagine the pain and anguish you are going through. Not knowing the fate of your loved ones is unfathomable,” Thomas-Greenfield said to the families of the victims. “It is a reality brought by the bloody hand of Hamas terrorists that no one should ever, ever, be forced to endure.”

Thomas-Greenfield was the only other UN diplomat to speak at the event, although video of the event showed diplomats from 47 other countries in attending in solidarity with Israel.