Artist’s ‘I love you’ text to boyfriend before she was taken hostage | UK News

The boyfriend of an Israeli artist taken hostage by Hamas has told how her last message to him was to say ‘I love you’ as they looked forward to their first holiday together.  

Noam Alon said that he and Inbar Hyman were meant to be heading to ‘heaven’ in Egypt two days later but she is now in ‘hell’ after being abducted by the militants on October 7.

Naom, 24, also said that he wants a deal for the hostages, thought to be being held in Gaza, to come before any Israeli military ground offensive into the Palestinian territory.  

Inbar, 27, had been volunteering at the Nova outdoor music festival in the Negev desert, close to the border with the enclave in southern Israel.  

Eyewitness accounts suggest she was abducted by two men on a motorbike after first trying to hide with other revellers at the event, where the militants carried out a massacre of at least 260 people.  

Her parents have since been able to identify the art student in a video released by Hamas where her face is obscured but other parts of her appearance are visible, including a distinctive pattern on her tights. Naom cannot bring himself to watch the footage.  

‘The festival was on Saturday and we were meant to go on our vacation to the Sinai in Egypt on Sunday,’ he said.

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‘On Thursday night I sent her a message saying I love her and I really miss her and can’t wait for us to spend some time together.  

‘On Friday night she replied by text to say “I love you” and how much she was looking forward to our adventure. Then on Saturday she was kidnapped by Hamas and now she is being held hostage somewhere in Gaza.

‘We were meant to go to heaven, instead she has ended up in hell.’ 

The street artist had tried to flee as the festival was attacked by the terrorists at the outset of the mass incursion 11 days ago. She is said to have fled to the main stage area and to have hid with friends for a few hours until they were told that the gunmen were close.  

She then ran with two people she had met there, with the trio trying to hide in shrubs before they were chased down by two assailants, with one pinning a knife to her throat, according to the accounts.  

Two other militants on a motorbike then seized Inbar despite attempts by one of the Israeli men, who both managed to escape, to fight them off with a stick, the eyewitnesses said. 

Israel has said that there are 199 hostages being held by Hamas.

However the UK-proscribed terror group has said that it has captured 200, with another 50 being held by other groups. 

Naom is among those who can only wait and hope in the week when he and his girlfriend were meant to return from the holiday to start a new academic year at the Wizo art academy in their home city of Haifa.

‘We are just praying and hoping that she will survive this and return to us without any physical harm,’ he said. ‘We hope she is being treated well and receiving medicine and food and water.  

‘Mentally life will never be the same, not for her, not for us, or for anyone else in this country, but we just hope that she will return and as much as possible be ok. I hope that she is safe and there will be a deal.

‘We hope that Hamas will do everything to keep her and the other hostages safe and our government and other governments will do everything possible to make this deal happen now. Before any invasion of Gaza there must be a deal, to return the hostages, at any price.’

Inbar, a graffiti artist known as Pink, has been shown support in murals painted by other exponents in Israel, with another planned to remember all of the hostages. 

For now, Naom is trying to make sure that the abductees are at the forefront of the Israeli response, which is expected to include a large-scale ground offensive in Gaza. 

‘Before invading, before destroying Hamas, we must have all the hostages back,’ he said.  

‘We have to return the people who have been kept in Gaza for 12 days and all the world must do everything it can to make this happen before any military operation which will risk their lives. 

‘The price will not be cheap. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured, was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. But Israel must pay the price and deal with the circumstances later.’ 

The Israel Defence Forces have said that it is making ‘valiant efforts’ to locate the hostages in Gaza and will not ‘carry out an attack that would endanger our people’.

MORE : British family’s ‘devastation’ after Hamas seizes great-grandmother, 84, from kibbutz

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