THE devastated mum of an Israeli hostage trapped in Gaza told how she stared into the “black, hate-filled” eyes of a Hamas terrorist on October 7.
Simona Steinbrecher, 63, lives in one of the border communities first hit in the Hamas slaughter which killed 1,200 and kidnapped 250 more last year.
Simona told The Sun how Hamas terrorists dressed as Israeli soldiers ravaged the kibbutz, murdering 64 and snatching 19 people including her daughter.
Doron Steinbrecher, 30, is a veterinary student who was living in an apartment not far from her family in Kfar Aza.
She has been trapped in the Gaza Strip for 308 days and her heartbroken mum is terrified about what she might be enduring there.
Doron needs daily medication, which Simona fears she isn’t getting, and none of the hostages released so far have brought home any news of her.
The worried mum told documentarian Alan Duncan of her fears that Doron and the more than 100 other remaining hostages are running out of time.
She spoke as part of her work with the Hostage and Missing Families Forum – also known as Bring Them Home – a dedicated group working to return all kidnapped Israelis and others taken on October 7.
Simona said for years the community worried about how close they were to Gaza, just 200 metres, and how Hamas terrorists were “all the time” coming “closer and closer” to them.
But she told The Sun that Israeli officials constantly reassured them “It’s ok”.
Then early one quiet Saturday, Hamas militants poured over the southern Israel border and unleashed hell.
The emotional mum said: “On that morning when I looked behind the windows I saw so many… hundreds.
“Some of them came in the clothes of soldiers. Some of them were in black clothes. And some in normal clothes [sic].”
“They didn’t see me but I saw their eyes. They were black and you could see the hate in their eyes [sic].
“I think people can’t imagine how bad, how evil they are.
“When I think that my baby is with the evil people I’m afraid to think what’s happened.”
They didn’t see me but I saw their eyes. They were black and you could see the hate in their eyes [sic]
Simona Steinbrecher
Simona said she had no idea how, but Doron was able to leave a voicemail for her family the morning she was taken.
“She phoned and we have a voice message, in the message she says they take her,” the emotional mum revealed.
“We can hear the fear in her voice… we live with a big fear of what happened to her.
“We know from the people who come back, they tell us things that happened there.
“The physical brutality, even sexual brutality, she’s a beautiful woman, we are afraid about what has happened to her [sic].”
She lived with no news of Doron for months until Hamas released a sick video of several hostages including her daughter on January 26.
Speaking to The Sun last week she pointed to a still taken from the video and said her daughter looked “thin and white”.
Some 115 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza, including 41 whose deaths have been confirmed by the Israeli authorities.
There isn’t time for them… everyone knows that they don’t drink, eat, sleep, don’t have lives
Simona Steinbrecher
Fourteen of the 19 hostages taken from their kibbutz have been returned since October 7.
None saw Doron while they were being held in the war-torn Strip.
Simona is desperate for a hostage deal to be secured for her daughter’s release.
She told The Sun she goes to bed with her daughter’s voice and wakes up with it every day.
After almost 10 months she is constantly thinking about what more she can do to bring Doron and all the other hostages home.
“There isn’t time for them,” she said, “everyone knows that they don’t drink, eat, sleep, don’t have lives.”
Worried mum Simona tragically told The Sun how Doron is supposed to take medicine for a health condition every day.
Despite aid being sent into Gaza, many humanitarian deliveries have been hijacked by Hamas.
“She must take medicine every day and they don’t give it to her,” Simona said.
IDF forces have previously found medical supplies sent into Gaza meant for the hostages left unopened and unused.
Simona and her husband left their home around 6am on October 7 to travel to their other daughter’s house in the same kibbutz.
The family went into a saferoom together after hearing an alarm, not an unusual occurrence in a border-land community.
Simona told The Sun: “I see a lot of Hamas around my house and my husband says ‘go in quickly’, he heard and saw them.”
They would spend 13 hours sheltering as Hamas terrorists tore their way through the community.
One of the homes attacked in her kibbutz, which she describes as a “big family”, had three children aged 10, 14 and 15 who were killed along with their mum and dad.
Some children were orphaned when both of their parents died.
Simona told how she eventually came out of the shelter to get a drink of water and saw terrorists who she thought were friendly troops from the kitchen window.
She said: “I was thirsty so I go to my kitchen to drink and I saw Hamas, I was sure, I think they are Israeli soldiers and I call my husband.
“He look[ed] and he saw the gun and the gun was a Kalashnikov and he say ‘quickly quickly go down its Hamas it’s not our soldier’.”
The Kalashnikov rifles are a known weapon used by Hamas, found in their tunnel network in Gaza and other operational bases in the Strip.
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
IN THE almost 10 months since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, waves of conflict have broken out across the Middle East.
Some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed and 250 taken hostage in the hideous ambush.
115 hostages are believed to still be in Gaza, including 41 whose deaths have been confirmed by the Israeli authorities.
Israel has repeatedly vowed to wipe out every member of Hamas despite civilian collateral in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas claims some 40,000 have died in Gaza – and the IDF say they have killed 15,000 terrorists since October 7.
Most of the Strip has also been destroyed by the fighting and airstrikes, reportedly displacing some two million people from their homes.
Some Israelis have pushed against Netanyahu’s regime for a deal that will see the 115 hostages who remain in Gaza alive returned home with protests in Tel Aviv.
Israel is also facing a fresh wave of conflict with Iran and its various other puppet proxies in the region, namely Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
Civilians across the region are at risk from the fighting, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon.
Doron has young nephews who also live in Kfar Aza.
Since she was kidnapped, Simona said they ask about her every day before they go to sleep.
She told The Sun that when they learn something new at school, or make something, they always say: “It’s for DoDo”.
“They have a box and they put all the things in the box and they say it’s for DoDo,” Simone added.
Speaking of the hostages still trapped over the border, she told us: “Old people and babies and young women are still there… it’s hard to imagine this.
“We must bring them home now, they don’t have time so we must do it now [sic].
Crying, Simona said: “On October 7 life stopped. Our lives don’t continue if Doron and others don’t come home.
“What is important to know is that they [Hamas] took people who just live their lives quietly, do nothing to no one and they began to kill, fire at the houses.
“Hamas, they are not people, they are evil. They came with the idea to kill, to take hostages with hate for the people in Israel.”
“For me and my family it stopped on the day it happened, still we are there, we fight and this is the only way, to fight for Doron and all of them.
“They need to come back now.”
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum supports the families of those kidnapped on October 7.
They have warned “time is running out” for those still captive in Gaza and are calling for help to “bring them home now”.
The volunteer organisation continues to call for support and donations – with more information that can be found here.
