Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, was hiding in a safe room with her husband Yarden, their nine-month-old Kfir and three-year-old Ariel when Israel was invaded by the militants on Saturday.
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Armed with just a small pistol, Yarden hoped to defend his family and their home in in Kibbutz Nir Oz as villages were raided – in an attack which saw hundreds of Israelis killed and over 100 taken hostage.
The father texted relatives ‘I love you all’ as they sheltered, with militants firing semi-automatic weapons outside their window, according to reports. Half an hour later, he ominously wrote ‘they’re coming in’, before communication ceased.
The family has not been heard from since, and Shiri’s parents, Yosi and Margit Silberman, who are in their late 60s, are also missing and feared abducted.
Later, video emerged showing the distraught mother clutching her two children as they are kidnapped, with no sign of their father, as horrified onlookers scream: ‘She has a baby.’
Social media footage of Shiri sobbing as she and her children are taken away by the militants has sparked anguish among the Jewish community worldwide.
The mother’s expression of terror and pictures of her innocent sons in happier times have been used by demonstrators around the world to illustrate the terror inflicted on Israel by Hamas.
Distraught Israelis at a vigil outside Downing Street in London held up pictures of the mum and her boys being taken, with one placard begging: ‘Let the children go’.
