'SECOND HOLOCAUST': UK relatives of captives describe how Israeli girls were 'raped over their friends bodies' as they demand release

'SECOND HOLOCAUST': UK relatives of captives describe how Israeli girls were 'raped over their friends bodies' as they demand release

Relatives of hostages deliver an emotional press conference

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Ben Chapman

By Ben Chapman


Published: 12/10/2023

- 15:45

Updated: 12/10/2023

- 16:03

They are calling on governments to help get hostages back

A British national has hit out at Hamas for carrying out a “second Holocaust” as he demanded the release of all hostages.

Noam Sagi and Sharon Lifschitz, who both have had loved ones seized by the terror group, spoke of how they were torn from their beds and forcibly sent to Gaza by Hamas along with children as young as six months old.


They are calling on governments to help get them back while hitting out at the shocking actions carried out by the perpetrators.

“On Saturday morning, the Kibbutz where I was born and grew up, woke up to a massacre - to a second Holocaust”, he said.

Noam Sagi

Noam Sagi speaks emotionally about his missing mother

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“Mostly young kids and old elderly people. They burned the place to the ground, shot the dogs. Nothing left.”

He added that families living in the kibbutz were “gassed, burned, slaughtered, killed and kidnapped.”

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It was revealed a six-month-old baby was among the captives when images of several abductees were shared at the press conference.

Sagi has been desperately seeking to have his 75-year-old mother returned to him after she was set to join him in the UK for birthday celebrations.

His plans were cruelly scuppered by Hamas terrorists, leading him to question how they can be fighting over a “nine-month-old baby and an 80-year-old sick woman”.

He lives in Cricklewood, North London, having grown up in a kibbutz near the Gaza border.

A press conference is held for British relatives of hostages as they demand their release

A press conference is held for British relatives of hostages as they demand their release

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“I was supposed to be on my way to pick her up, she was very much looking forward to coming here”, he told GB News

“On the 7 October, my mum had an exchange with my sister. She said that she is seeing and hearing people outside and was really worried, and went into her safe room.

“In the kibbutz, there is a safe room in every house to protect people from shelling and rockets, not from people coming in.

“It is heartbreaking. Every picture I see it’s people I grew up with, people I know. It’s like one big family.

Hamas' armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades hold a Palestinian flag as they destroy a tank of Israeli forces in Gaza CityHamas' armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades hold a Palestinian flag as they destroy a tank of Israeli forces in Gaza CityGETTY

“You go through the pain of each of the families.”

Sagi told GB News that he is trying to remain positive as he continues to call on Hamas to release its hostages.

“Everyone needs to prioritise the young kids and babies”, he said.

“Their only crime is being Jewish, living in Israel. They need to be out of that.

“I’m trying to stay positive, head on, and call on anyone with a pumping heart to get the under 18s and over 65s out of this first.”

Opening the press conference for Sharon Lifschitz and Noam Sagi was a host who delivered a damning indictment of Hamas’s actions.

“Hamas is a modern day death squad”, she said.

“They went door to door, snatched bodies fro their mothers and children from their beds and brutally, cold-bloodedly slaughtered them.

“Girls were raped over their friends’ bodies, many survivors were kidnapped.

“These horrific acts were celebrated on the streets of Tehran, Gaza and even by some here in London.

“We have never before in Israel experienced such a traumatic event, which will take years, if not generations, to overcome.

“This is the biggest hostage crisis the world has faced in decades.”

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