Heartbreak for British family whose son is missing after Hamas attack
Heartbreak for British family whose son went missing after Hamas music festival attack ‘as they reveal his fiancée has been found killed’
- Dor Shafir and his fiancée Savion Kiper were at a festival that came under attack
- They have not been heard from since Saturday but Savion was later found dead
- Miryam Shafir, 55, urged UK and Irish governments to apply pressure to Hamas
- Israel Palestine conflict LIVE: More than 700 killed in Gaza as strip is pounded by Israeli warplanes
A British family whose son went missing after Hamas gunmen stormed a music festival in Israel has revealed his fiancée was tragically found murdered.
Miryam Shafir, 55, yesterday held back tears as she urged the UK and Irish governments to apply pressure on the Palestinian terror group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Her son, Dor Shafir, and his fiancée, Savion Hen Kiper, both 30, were attending the music festival near Nirim, a kibbutz in the south of Israel close to the Gaza border when Hamas militants soared over the fence using paragliders.
They landed and began shooting indiscriminately into the crowd, forcing the hundreds of attendees to scatter in terror.
At around 7am on Saturday – roughly half an hour after the attack began – Dor sent a text to say he and Savion had managed to escape the initial slaughter and found shelter.
But the Shafir family this morning told Good Morning Britain that Savion was later found dead, murdered by the ruthless militants who later captured hostages and fled back to Gaza.
Dor meanwhile remains unaccounted for, with his desperate family unsure of his fate and holding out what little hope remains that he is still alive.
Meanwhile, some 260 bodies have been recovered from the festival ground, almost all of whom were civilians gunned down in cold-blood by the Hamas militants.
Miryam Shafir, 55, with her son, Dor Shafir, and his fiancée, Savion Hen Kiper, at a bowling alley
Festivalgoers at the nature party near Nirim, in the south of Israel, close to the Gaza border
Revellers at the trance music rave, near Nirim, in the south of Israel close to the Gaza border
Yesterday, Ms Shafir gave an impassioned plea to Good Morning Britain.
‘We know from a person that saw them at the party that when they heard the first rockets my son and his girlfriend were the first to run to their car and leave. Within minutes everyone fled,’ she said.
‘They ran into the forest or got into their cars and started driving all over the place. Some of them were met by Hamas terrorists. Some of the people were shot, some were taken hostage.
‘We don’t know if they are alive or dead. There were hundreds, hundreds of young people killed. We don’t even know who they are or where they are.’
‘Savion and Dor were planning to get married next year, and I want to make them a wedding,’ she said, through tears.
Savion sent a final text message at 7.03am on Saturday to a friend, saying: ‘We fled the party and we found shelter.’
The couple has not been heard from since.
The police managed to track Savion and Dor’s mobile phone signal.
Ms Shafir said: ‘We know that Dor’s phone was shut off manually at 1.30 on Saturday. We don’t know who shut the phone off, if our son shut off the phone, maybe to save battery or to be silent wherever he was, or if he was taken physically by Hamas and they shut the phone. Savion’s phone was giving signals until 11.30 on Saturday night.’
Dor and his father, Itzik in the mountains
The family are pictured together at a bowling alley
Both phones’ signals were traced by police to Re’im, another kibbutz in southern Israel, where a cellular antenna serves a 5km radius area. That could place the couple in Gaza.
‘Even 40 hours after the attack started, there are still terrorists in the area who aren’t allowing anyone even to come close, to search,’ Ms Shafir said.
Ms Shafir, whose father is from Reading and whose mother was from Dublin, urged the UK and Ireland to get involved.
She said: ‘We are citizens, they should help stop this war crime from going on. There are hundreds of innocent people, women, children, young people, who are hostages in Gaza. We don’t even know if they are dead or alive.
‘My son is British and Irish and this is why I want the international community to intervene. We need help. I don’t know where our children are.
Israeli festival goers could be seen dancing in the desert at dawn on Saturday, completely unaware that within minutes members of the Hamas militant group were about to descend from the skies and inflict terror
Israelis could be heard shouting, running, and hurriedly getting into cars as they attempted to escape
Drone footage taken in the aftermath of the attack in Saturday’s early hours shows cars left at the roadside, near Kibbutz Re’im, close to Gaza, from which Hamas launched its shock assault, many of them destroyed or pockmarked with bullet impacts
READ MORE: Chilling video shows terrified revellers hiding in undergrowth and recording messages for loved ones as Hamas gunmen stalked Israeli festival in massacre that left 260 dead
‘We don’t know if they are hostages. We don’t officially know if they are in Gaza. I don’t know if he’s alive. I am praying that he’s alive.’
Hundreds of cars abandoned in the scramble to flee a massacre at the music festival where Hamas gunmen killed 260 people and took captives back into Gaza underline the scale of the deadliest attack on Israel in decades.
Drone footage taken in the aftermath of the attack in Saturday’s early hours shows cars left at the roadside near Kibbutz Re’im, close to Gaza, from which Hamas launched its shock assault, many of them destroyed or pockmarked with bullet impacts.
Thousands of young people attended the nature party, which became one of the first targets of Palestinian gunmen who breached Gaza’s border fence early on Saturday under cover of massive rocket barrages from Gaza.
Video footage circulating on social media shows the gunmen descending in paragliders on the gathering in the Negev Desert.
Other social media footage shows some of those taken captive from the party being led away by jubilant gunmen.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Monday that regional governments did not want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to spill out into other parts of the region (File Photo)
At least 700 Israelis were killed in unprecedented ground, air and sea attacks and dozens more were abducted into Gaza in profoundly shocking scenes.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said yesterday that regional governments did not want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to spill out into other parts of the region after the Islamist group Hamas assaulted Israel from Gaza on Saturday.
He was asked by broadcasters about concerns that Hezbollah could get involved, following the attack by Hamas.
Mr Cleverly said: ‘We should recognise that Hamas are a terrorist organisation. They are not acting on behalf of the entirety of the Palestinian people, or indeed the other countries in the region.
‘Israel has told us they are very focused on dealing with this specific terrorist threat from Hamas.
‘I have spoken with representatives and governments around the region and we are all agreed that nobody wants this to spill out into other parts of the region.
‘Israel are very focused on dealing with a specific terrorist threat from Hamas emanating from Gaza. That remains their focus.’
Source: Read Full Article
