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 potentially 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 during the last 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.” She had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.

Keren described her mother, who worked as an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the “sweetest biggest heart,” who 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.

    • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Sure. And Netanyahu is a right-wing asshole. But he isn’t a terrorist.

      You see the difference?

          • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            That is pretty much textbook. Someone or some party that uses violence and the threat of violence to create fear in the pursuit of political goals.

            Problem is that applies to most nation states that are active on the global scale. So the political use can be reduced to “terrorists are always the others”

            • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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              1 year ago

              It’s pretty much always “terrorist are when those without power use the tools of fear against those with power.” All “freedom fighters” are terrorists who won pretty much. All nations are terrorists who get to use their power and influence to convince others they aren’t.

          • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            A terrorist is a member of a non-government military group that uses violence for political gains

            Attacking civilians isn’t related

        • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, if I was dead wrong about what words mean, I wouldn’t want to argue semantics either.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            What is your definition? It’s got to be interesting if it isn’t the one everyone else has decided is the correct one.

          • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Then why do you keep replying when you are dead wrong? Can’t even be consistent on keeping your word.

      • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Hamas are terrorists, Netanyahu is a terrorist. If a terrorist is someone who attacks civilians for political aims.

        I find it hard to discriminate Civilian A who was killed from Civilian B who was killed by the other side. Apparently that is a controversial statement around here. Ya’ll are fucked.

        • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hamas are terrorists because the target civilians for death.

          Netanyahu is a corrupt right-wing asshole, but he doesn’t target innocent civilians for death.

          If you broaden the word “terrorist” to apply to anyone you don’t like for any reason, the word ceases to have any meaning or weight.

          And that gives cover to ACTUAL terrorists.

          • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Deliberately cutting off water, electricity and medical aid will result directly in children dying. Again I find it hard to see the difference between civilian A and civilian B being killed just on the basis of WHO killed them. But you do you.

              • jarfil@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Not sure if you refer to Hamas, or the possible Israeli land invasion.

                • NekoKamiGuru@ttrpg.network
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                  1 year ago

                  Hamas , since killing civilians was not collateral damage for their plan on oct 7 , it was sanctioned and approved by every level of the Hamas command structure as an objective of their attack.

                  • jarfil@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Interesting you’d say this 19 days later, after:

                    How many times “collateral damage” is fine? All of it?

            • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Again, you’re pretending that INTENTION doesn’t matter. That collateral damage is morally equivalent to a targeted killing.

              I just 100 percent disagree.

              • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                What other result is there for INTENTIONALLY cutting off food, water and electricity. BTW I just asked my 12 yr old if I cut off the food water and electricity to a population would mean I be responsible for the deaths and her answer was “DUH!” This isn’t hard man.

                • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  That’s fine. Maybe if we ask Hamas to be nice and come out, they’ll stop using all those people as a human shield.

                  Go lecture them. You’re very persuasive.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                1 year ago

                They’re intentionally killing civilians. It’s equally targeted. It’s not just collateral damage any more than nuking a civilian populace to kill one person is collateral damage. They also intentionally targeted and bombed the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza after telling civilians to flee there.

                Just because one side can kill the other with technology and superior firepower doesn’t make it morally different.

              • Okashiikessen@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Netanyahu has every opportunity to tell his army not to target civilian dwellings.

                But he isn’t. Because he and his ilk have repeatedly stated their opinions that Palestinians don’t matter. They aren’t people.

                Israel has been waiting on an excuse to genocide the Palestinians for at least a decade now. Hamas just gave it to them.

                https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/no-such-thing-as-palestinian-people-top-israeli-minister-says

                https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-election-idUSKBN0MC1I820150316

                https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/18/10-quotes-that-explain-the-history-of-the-gaza-conflict/

                It’s wrong-headed to try to absolve either side of any blame here. Hamas are terrorists. So is the Israeli state.

                Israel has a right to be paranoid and militant. They’ve had to fight for their right to exist as a nation for 70-80 years now. Constantly under attack. Constantly at war.

                And the Palestinians have the right to be angry. Their land was stolen from them to make room for a Jewish State. They were displaced with no attempt to compromise. And they’ve been discriminated against and murdered systematically since.

                So course extremist factions popped up on both sides.

                Innocent people have been murdered by both. Hamas might have started this most recent fight, but Israel has had no qualms in using its superior firepower just as ruthlessly.

          • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            bro you can you read? hear words? Israel is currently bombing apartments, ambulances, etc. Specifically with the goal of killing every last citizen in gaza that doesn’t flee.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              People who don’t blame Hamas for building HQs in fucking hospitals are too dumb to deserve a voice in this conflict

              • medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org
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                There aren’t any Hamas fighters in those hospitals unless they’re among the wounded. MSF put up a report yesterday about hospitals being hit by missiles and there’s been a bunch of reports of entire high-rise residences getting bombed today. Hamas is not as ubiquitous as your ilk seem to think and the overwhelming majority of the people in Gaza are civilians with no food, no water, no fuel, no medical supplies, and nowhere to go to escape Israel’s genocidal artillery.

              • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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                More apologetics for Netanyahu killing civilians that you deem worth killing. You are fuckin sick in the head dude. Stop makin excuses for people committing war crimes no matter the side.

                • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  KILLING civilians happens in every war, no matter how just.

                  The issue is who is being TARGETED.

                  Hamas targets civilians. Israel targets Hamas.

                  Hamas hides among civilians, to use them as human shields.

                  So when Israel targets Hamas, of course civilians are going to die. That’s on Hamas’s hands as well.

                  If each faction had the ability to only kill exactly who they wanted, Israel would be killing only militants, and Hamas would still be killing children.

                  • Sparlock@lemmy.world
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                    CUTTING OFF ALL WATER FOOD AND ELECTRICITY IS TARGETING CIVILIANS FOR DEATH. Sorry for the all caps but you seem to not be getting the idea otherwise. I don’t care if civilian A or B is killed by either side, it is a war crime.