Following the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend, two adolescent British sisters are among those reported missing and possibly presumed dead.

The family of Noiya, 13, and Yahel, 16, believe they were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri, and taken across the border into Gaza. It was confirmed that their mother Lianne, who is British and born in Bristol, was murdered in the 7 October attack.

The family has not released the girls’ surname. The war has already claimed over 2,800 lives on both sides and sent tensions soaring across the region. Israel has bombarded Gaza round-the-clock since a weekend attack in which Hamas fighters stormed into the country’s south and massacred hundreds, including children in their homes and young people at a music festival.

Kibbutz Be’eri was one of the hardest-hit Israeli border communities in the murderous Hamas assault on Israel. President Isaac Herzog visited the Kibbutz on Sunday and said the “land is saturated with blood.”

He continued: “There was life here, there was a paradise here that turned into hell. We have a moral and national duty to return it to being a paradise. This is a tremendous duty. A duty to their memory, a duty to the families, a duty to, as much as possible, bring home the abductees.”

One survivor, Haim Jelin, told local media that Hamas fighters “walked around Be’eri like they owned the place.” He said: “They shot indiscriminately, abducted whoever they could, burned down people’s homes so they’d have to escape through the window, where the terrorists would wait.”