More than 4,000 people have died in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas after the terror group carried out a brutal attack on Oct. 7, which included the slaughter of more than 1,400 Israelis in communities surrounding Gaza. The deaths also include 260 attendees of a music festival that Hamas terrorists killed that same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the rising death toll, at least 199 others, including children, were captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to the Israeli government. The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded.<\/p>\n
While the identities of all those who have been killed in the violence or taken hostage by the terror group are unknown to the public, the Israeli government has identified several victims as: a daughter who initially decided not to go to the Tribe of Nova music festival but changed her mind at the last minute, an Israeli jewelry designer described as \u2018the softest soul,\u2019 an elderly couple married more than 50 years, a third-generation Israeli soldier, and many others.<\/p>\n
As officials have identified those who died, remain missing or those taken hostage by Hamas, surviving family members have begun to shed light on who they were, their personalities and their lives.<\/p>\n
Karin Journo, 24, recently fractured her leg and talked herself out of going with her friends to the Tribe of Nova music festival on Saturday, Oct 7. Content with her decision, she even sold her ticket. However, a week before the event, she changed her mind \u2014 a decision that changed her life forever.<\/p>\n
That same morning, as about 3,500 young Israelis had come to the venue for a joyous night of electronic music to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, dancing and singing together, dozens of Hamas terrorists had blown through Israel\u2019s heavily fortified separation fence, crossed into the country from Gaza and opened fire on the crowd.<\/p>\n
At 8:43 that Saturday morning, the 24-year-old French-Israeli airport worker sent a final text to her loved ones.<\/p>\n
According to her father, Doron Journo, the text read, \u2018To the whole family, I want to say that I love you a lot, because I am not coming home.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Since that message, we have heard nothing. We don\u2019t know if she is dead, if she is in Gaza. We know nothing,\u2019 the father told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\u2018My daughter didn\u2019t go to war,\u2019 he says. \u2018She just went to dance.\u2019<\/p>\n
Moran Stela Yanai\u2019s jewelry reflected cultures around the world as she embedded delicate pearls into silver and stainless steel chains. However, she has not had a chance to revisit her art after she went to the desert rave on Saturday and was among hundreds who remain missing after Hamas terrorists attacked.<\/p>\n
Days before the music festival, Yanai posted a video on Instagram on her way to the rave, and she has not been seen since, her family said.<\/p>\n
Yanai\u2019s brother-in-law, Dan Mor, said Thursday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he had a tough time describing her in the past tense, but that is the reality the family faces after members recognized her in a video on TikTok being carried away by Hamas.<\/p>\n
\u2018Moran is the softest soul,\u2019 recalled Mor, whose wife, Lea, is Yanai\u2019s sister. \u2018She could almost be annoying with how much she was so kind and sensitive to animals. You couldn\u2019t eat meat next to her because she was so sensitive to animals being harmed.\u2019<\/p>\n
He added, \u2018My beautiful dear sister-in-law, auntie to my kids. She had a big heart, she has a big heart, and I\u2019m hoping that heart is still pumping.\u2019<\/p>\n
Adina Moshe, 72, and her husband of more than 50 years, David, huddled together in a bomb shelter in a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border when Hamas fired rockets onto civilian communities on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
The terrorists then invaded the surrounding communities, indiscriminately attacking civilians, including the Moshe family in kibbutz Nir Oz.<\/p>\n
Adina\u2019s granddaughter, Anat Moshe, 25, said in a telephone interview Thursday that her family viewed a video of Adina Moshe in a red shirt being driven off on a motorbike by Hamas terrorists from her home.<\/p>\n
Anat said her grandmother had had heart surgery a year ago and has not been heard from since the Hamas insurgency. The fighters also had killed her grandfather, she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018They were so in love, you don\u2019t know how in love they were,\u2019 she said. Adina \u2018would make him his favorite food, Iraqi food. Our Shabbat table was always so full,\u2019 the granddaughter said.<\/p>\n
Adina and David\u2019s romance and family started in Nir Oz, after the two first met at the community pool.<\/p>\n
Roni Eshel, a 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier, assured her mother that she was busy but OK in a text message roughly three hours after the Hamas attack started last Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u2018I love you so much,\u2019 Eschel told her mother, Sharon, hours after Hamas terrorists launched the deadliest attack in Israel\u2019s 75-year history.<\/p>\n
More than a week later, her parents still have not heard from her.<\/p>\n
Her father, Eyal Eshel, said that waiting on any updates on his daughter has been \u2018hell.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t know what to do. I don\u2019t know what to think, actually. Where is she? What is she eating? If it\u2019s cold for her? If it\u2019s hot? I don\u2019t know nothing,\u2019 Eyal Eshel told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Roni Eshel worked in a communications unit at a base near Nahal Oz and only returned to work the Wednesday before the attack.<\/p>\n
Eyal said his daughter was proud to be the third generation of her family to join the Israeli military. Her father, uncle and grandfather also served.<\/p>\n
\u2018She was very happy to serve the country,\u2019 her father said.<\/p>\n
She was three months into her second year of mandatory military service.<\/p>\n
The death toll and the number of missing persons reported by Israeli government continue to increase more than a week after the terror attack. Both figures are expected to continue to rise as Israeli Defense Forces prepare a ground invasion into Gaza.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n