Yoni Asher’s nightmare began early on Saturday morning during a phone call with his wife, Doron Asher Katz.
Whispering down the phone line, Ms. Asher Katz, 34, said that she, her mother, and their two small daughters were trapped inside her mother’s safe room in a village near the Gaza border.
“She told me, ‘There are terrorists inside the house,’” Mr. Asher said in an interview.
Then came worse news: Ms. Asher Katz’s mother’s life partner, Gadi Moses, had left the safe room to reason with the intruders.
“She said they left — and they took him with them,” Mr. Asher said.
Mr. Asher, 37, hoped that his spouse and children were safe, at least. But then the phone lines went dead.
