PARIS — The horrific wait for the families of those apparently abducted in the Hamas attack on Israel has been marked by silence, uncertainty and pain.

These are voices of the families waiting and hoping:

'EVERY MINUTE CRITICAL'

Ms Ricarda Louk has been living a nightmare since she recognised her 22-year-old daughter Shani in a video, stripped and battered, in the back of a truck surrounded by Hamas militants.

In a video on broadcaster ARD on Tuesday (Oct 10), the mother said she had received new information that her daughter was alive but had a severe head injury and was in a critical condition. 

Ms Louk first raised the alarm about her daughter at the weekend after she recognised her in videos circulating online, due to her tattoos and dyed hair. 

The videos showed a half-naked woman lying seemingly unconscious face down in the back of a pick-up truck in Gaza filled with armed men.

"Every minute is critical, and we are asking the German government to act quickly," she said.

Her daughter was attending a music festival in southern Israel near the Gaza strip when Hamas militants attacked the event and began killing and capturing partygoers.

Up to 250 people from the event were killed.

'I WOULD HUG HIM'

Ms Kanyarat Suriyasri said she was heartbroken when she found out her husband, who had travelled from Thailand to Israel to support his family, had been taken hostage by Hamas.

"My heart broke," she told AFP from Si Saket province in eastern Thailand. "I am waiting to hear some good news."

Her husband, 40-year-old Owat Suriyasri, moved to Israel in 2021 for improved wages, hoping to build a better house for his wife and two children.

"We have a lot of debts, and working abroad pays better than in Thailand," she said.

But if she could see him now, Suriyasri said, "I would hug him."

Hamas killed 18 Thai nationals in its offensive against Israel, a heavy toll for the southeast Asian country that has steered clear from major international conflicts.

WE LEFT COLOMBIA 'TO FIND PEACE'

Mr Julio Rubio moved to Israel in the 1990s to escape the violence caused by drug cartels in Colombia. Now he fears his 26-year-old daughter has been taken hostage by Hamas.

"Dad, a war has started!" Mr Rubio's daughter Ivonne told him over the phone from the music festival Hamas attacked.

"I didn't understand everything she was saying on the phone," Mr Rubio told Colombia's Caracol Radio on Monday.

He said his daughter told him she was going to try to find shelter. 

"I spoke to her for 50 seconds, and I haven't heard from her since," he said.

Ms Ivonne is the mother of a young boy, and partner to Mr Antonio Mesias Montano, also missing, and also a parent. 

Mr Rubio and his family moved to Israel 32 years ago to flee the violence in Colombia, he said. 

"We came here looking for some peace, and now look at what we've found here," he said. AFP