Hamas won’t release my kidnapped son who was snatched as he chatted to me… his chilling last video shows his pure terror
THE MOTHER of a Hamas hostage has revealed the chilling footage her son captured just moments before he was snatched by terrorists during the Oct 7 massacre.
Iris Haim’s son, 28-year-old Yotam, was at his home in Kfar Aza near the Gaza border when she suddenly lost contact with him at around 10.45am.
In a series of harrowing messages sent to his family, he warned that his kibbutz was under attack and that he was holed up in a safe room.
Footage captured on his phone shows panic in his neighbourhood as gunshots ring out and he rushes to lock himself inside.
A second video shows nothing but darkness as more menacing shots are fired one after the other.
In the panicked messages that follow he says that Hamas fighters are looting his home and have made holes in his shelter door.
The last text Yotam sends to his family is, “Please, They’re here”.
He was later confirmed to be one of 240 Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas and dragged into Gaza during a day of violence that shocked the world.
The attack sparked an all-out war with Israel vowing to wipe out Hamas in Gaza and across the Middle East despite calls for a ceasefire.
However, a truce was finally agreed meaning Hamas will release 50 hostages, mostly women and children, as fighting is paused for four days from November 23.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun Iris reveals the shocking events that unfolded on Oct 7 as she fights to get her son home.
HOSTAGE HELL
She told the Sun: “I just woke up for the boom and the very, very strong bombing we are used to that.
“Unfortunately, we live in an area that suffers a lot of bomb attacks and we know that sometimes it can happen, but it was very intense.
“My son started to message and informed us that there are some people wounded in my kibbutz, but nobody can help them.
“He filmed this video that there are terrorists in the kibbutz and we heard gunshots.
“Around 10 o’clock we understood it’s, it’s very very frightening because he started to write us that he cannot go out of his room.
“…There’s terrorists outside shooting people that they are shooting on his room.
Iris says that they tried to calm Yotam in their family group chat before the messages went silent.
She added: “I don’t remember exactly the last words, but…in the last message was that he is afraid he said to us, I love you. I don’t know if I will survive that…I want to tell you that I love you.”
Iris says the family including her husband Raviv and brother Tuval all lost contact with Yotam at around 10.45am – when Hamas terrorists are thought to have snatched him from the safe room.
She explained how the family desperately tried to reach him but were also trapped inside their safe rooms as fighters unleashed hell indiscriminately.
The attack saw thousands killed while hostages were taken back to Gaza and believed to have been hidden in a network of underground terror tunnels.
Putting in calls to hospitals, Iris hoped that someone would recognise her son’s distinctive red hair and tattoos – but no one did.
Unable to visit his burnt-down home since he was taken hostage, his mother says the fact that the safe room has remained in one piece gave her hope her son is alive.
She said: “The little safe room was okay…no blood, no signs of violence.”
In the days and weeks that followed, she says she couldn’t bear to answer the phone in case it was a call to confirm her son’s body had been found.
A week after Yotam vanished, the heartbroken mother says the army found his mobile phone in Gaza – giving a glimmer of hope.
Now the family believes that the heavy-metal drummer is alive and being held hostage along with 240 others.
Iris describes her middle son as a “strong person” who will be using his stoic personality to pull through the horrifying ordeal.
Iris said: “He has a very very big sense of humor and he is very deep, a deep person.
“He’s very strong, very very strong and we think it’s helping him there because already he deals all his life with things with problems.”
An emotional Iris was recently pictured at a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London with the families of other Hamas hostages.
The father of nine-year-old Irish-Israeli Emily Hand who was abducted from bed during a sleepover at a friend’s house in Be’eri Kibbutz.
Her devastated family threw her an emotional birthday party last week, as her dad broke down in tears and said he’s praying for the return of his daughter.
Under the new agreement around 12 hostages are set to be released per day in phases – Emily is believed to be one of those.
Israeli families welcomed the deal but vowed to fight “until everyone comes back.”
After weeks of negotiations through mediator Qatar, the Israeli Prime Minister’s cabinet approved the truce following a near-all-night meeting, in which he told ministers this was a “difficult decision but it’s a right decision.”
Despite reaching an agreement fighting goes on in Gaza as the IDF said it continues its ground offensive before the ceasefire comes into effect.
Speaking to The Sun about the deal, Iris said: “We heard many, many many times that there is a deal, there is a deal and in the end, there was not a deal.
“…He will not be the first one to go back even though he has a chronic disease and he needs medicines.
“But if you ask me about what I think[about the deal], I think that if it’s in parts, the children must come first. Of course, no question about that.”
But the Israeli mother has put all her faith in the IDF to bring Yotam home.
She added: ” I know as a citizen of Israel that our IDF is very careful and what they are doing now is the only way that our hostages can come back.”