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An American mom, 67, spent her life advocating for Palestinian rights. Then, Hamas came for her. (www.usatoday.com)

submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] avater@lemmy.world 204 points 1 year ago

Hamas ≢ Palestine

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[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 104 points 1 year ago

I really don't understand why people decided to live in these kibbutz right next to the Gaza border and never realize that this might happen.

It's like sitting right on the very edge of the shoulder of a very busy highway. Eventually you will be hit by a fast moving car.

It's disputed territory with the potential of becoming a war zone at any moment and people decided to buy expensive real estate and build beautiful homes next to impoverished people that have nothing.

And we should be surprised that this happened?

What the Palestinians did was terrible ... but we should all be reading the headlines with a lot of history and context. None of it is justified by any side ... but at the same time, none of it is a surprise.

[-] ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 1 year ago

Seoul is 11 km from the North Korean border. People just assume things won't go wrong until they do.

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Moving a city is quite the feat compared to just not building houses blocks from a military DMZ

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

It's not like you have a lot of options in a small country.

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[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Israel is TINY. EVERYTHING is near a border with one of their hostile neighbors.

[-] wolfylow@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Man, if I could upvote this comment more than once I would.

Expresses my sentiments exactly.

I visited Israel years ago - shortly after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin - and remember coming across a class (girls, around 7-8 years old) out on a school trip … and they had 3 guys carrying assault rifles to protect them. And I remember thinking: “whatever it is you’re fighting for … isn’t worth it if you have to live like this”

And sadly I think it’s only got worse since that time.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Yesterday on TV over here, they showed a satellite picture of an area of Hamas' incursion across the border were you can see both sides of the border line and the border itself.

And the commentator said: "Here you can see the destruction caused by the attack"

And it's only after a few seconds of looking at the area that looks like a junkyard and a mess and thinking "yes indeed, it's all trashed" that you notice that actually the black smoke is all on the opposite side of the border, the one with lots of space and nature, with little villages, which would look idyllic if not for the smoke.

The overpopulated slum on the left side that looks like a junkyard on a satellite picture is the Gaza side and just a wall away on the right side is this idyllic area with lots of space and nature, a place were the people from the left side will never be allowed to live or even just visit.

How could anybody ever imagine that it would be safe to live in spacious homes and comparative luxury, right next an area were people are forced to, since the day they were born, live in what's basically an overcrowded slum?

[-] the_wise_wolf@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago

I was under the impression that the border was extremely well guarded and secure. At least at some point it must have been. It seems like the government recently moved troops to the west bank in order to protect settlers instead. https://lemmy.world/post/6616736

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 year ago

It still begs the question.

Who would want to buy real estate and settle into a home right next to a militarized border that separates you from a country that has many individuals that want to murderously destroy you and your entire family? In an area that might at any time turn into a war zone?

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[-] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 year ago

Hamas isn't Palestine. They don't represent the Palestinian people. It's not because Hamas took her that she was betrayed by Palestinians.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Hamas literally represents Palestine.

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this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023

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