A disabled Israeli teenager with muscular dystrophy is a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza after she was abducted from the Supernova music festival
Amit Azriel
- Hamas militants took a disabled 17-year-old hostage who attended the Supernova music festival.
- Rut Perez is a highly vulnerable wheelchair user with muscular dystrophy.
- Hamas has taken 150 Israelis hostages and is holding them in Gaza.
A disabled 17-year-old girl, Rut Perez, is among the 150 hostages abducted by Hamas militants, The Times of London reports. The vulnerable teenager, who has muscular dystrophy, was attending the Supernova festival near the Gaza border when Hamas militants massacred over 260 attendees.
Rut attended the electronic music festival with her sister, Yamit, and her father.
Yamit, told The Times, "It was the happiest I've ever seen her, dancing in her wheelchair. She was so happy." She said she had decided to leave the festival early with her friends. Her father told her: "Me and your sister will stay on and enjoy." Yamit does not know whether her father and sister are alive.
Rut cannot walk or talk and is fed through a tube, per Mail Online. She relies heavily on her family for support. She often attended music festivals with her father.
"I am begging Hamas to let my dad take care of her. He's the only one who knows what she needs," Yamit said.
Israeli authorities have launched efforts to rescue the hostages while tensions in the region escalate.
Israeli ground forces are carrying out their first raids within Gaza since the attack, targeting Palestinian rocket crews and seeking information about the hostages' whereabouts.
Israel told 1.1 million in northern Gaza to evacuate to the southern part of the strip within 24 hours. The UN condemned the demand, saying it was "impossible" for such a mass movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences. The UN is appealing for the order to be rescinded.
The Israeli government and volunteers are working to gather information about the hostages. Yamit and her mother, also a wheelchair user, were briefed by hostage negotiators in Tel Aviv alongside hundreds of other families whose relatives are being held captive, The Times reports.
"I want to believe there are good people in this world and they will help us get our family back," Yamit told The Times. "To their captors, I want to say, please, take care of them and let them come back home."