Israeli TV personality Ma’ayan Adam shared a heartbreaking post informing that her 27-year-old sister was killed by Hamas militants in 'execution-style'. Ma’ayan has hosted Israel's version of 'Dancing with the Stars' and is an anchor at a news programme at one of the country's most popular TV stations.
The 36-year-old Ma'ayan shared a post on Instagram, saying that her sister Mapal Adam, who was killed after playing dead in the hopes of being spared by Hamas gunmen who killed at least 260 people at a music festival near the border with Gaza, reported New York Post.
Mapal was killed while being held by her boyfriend, who suffered gunshot wounds to the back. He is expected to survive the attack. "On Saturday afternoon, in this idyllic setting, Mapal, our baby, hid underneath a truck and pretended as if she were dead. She held out for hours and didn’t move until terrorists killed her execution style," said Ma''ayan.
She further said that Mapal and her boyfriend Roey had moved in together in the last week and she was the "happiest person in the world". "He was lying next to her [as she lay on the ground], suffered gunshot wounds in the back, and survived to tell us how she died in his arms," she said.
Ma’ayan Adam wrote that the family was “crushed to pieces” and was suffering “pain that I didn’t know existed.”
The outdoor Tribe of Nova music festival was meant to be an all-night dance party in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel border, where thousands of young people would celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. But it became a site of deadly chaos when Hamas militants attacked the festival in the desert area early Saturday, killing an estimated 260 people.
Terrified revellers tried to run and hide from the gunfire, according to an Israeli rescue organization, news outlets and accounts on social media. The Israeli rescue service Zaka said paramedics have removed about 260 bodies from the music festival, with the figure expected to rise as teams continue working to clear the area.
Several videos posted to social media from the music festival showed a young woman being abducted by men on a motorbike as she cried for help. Another man nearby was led away with his hands behind his back. A separate video showed dozens of panicked festival-goers running through a field, trying to get into their cars, as gunshots rang out.
Israel-Hamas war
After Hamas militants launched more than 4,400 rockets and stormed Israel on Saturday, the war has escalated with Israeli forces relentlessly bombarding Gaza. The Israeli military on Tuesday announced that it considers Gaza's parliament and civilian ministries as legitimate targets in its offensive against Hamas.
More than 1,800 people have been killed on both sides of the border. At least 830 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, after a deadly incursion by Hamas militants on Saturday morning. On the other hand, over 900 people have been killed in Israel, and over 2,700 people have been injured since Saturday. The military said that they had established "full control" on the border with Gaza on the fourth day of the war.
IDF international spokesperson Lt Col Richard Hecht said that bodies of 1,500 terrorists had been located around southern Israel. It is unclear whether these numbers overlapped with deaths previously reported by Palestinian authorities.
Over 360,000 reserve forces have been mobilised to combat Hamas militants amid fears that some of them still remain in Israel. The airstrikes and formal declaration of war suggest that Israel has ramped up its offensive against Hamas after being caught off-guard by the surprise attack.
(with agency inputs)
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