https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...7b540397&ei=20




SHEFAYIM KIBBUTZ, Israel − 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 possibly 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 over the past 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." Keren had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.

Keren described her mother, an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the "sweetest biggest heart," whom 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.
She emigrated to Israel decades ago after a visit during college, when she fell in love with Israel's system of kibbutzim − collectives traditionally centered on agriculture but which have evolved to accommodate myriad interests, tastes and even businesses.

"They didn't deserve this,'' her daughter said Tuesday on the grounds of a sprawling hotel and resort on a coastal kibbutz northeast of Tel Aviv, where hundreds of people were evacuated after the attack. "No one deserves this."

It was filled with volunteers bringing sandwiches and sweetcakes. Sobbing teenagers, reunited after days of having their worst fears confirmed, hugged one another tightly. Small groups of people sat at tables hunched over laptops compiling lists of the missing. A manager said about 300 people from Kfar Aza were staying at the hotel.

Before the attack, Kfar Aza had a population of about 800. Nobody knows for sure how many survived.