Daughter fears for elderly parents 'taken from their beds' as hostages by Hamas

'We have incredibly little time, we have to talk about these hostages. We have to bring them back home'

A London-based artist who believes her elderly parents were taken hostage by Hamas during Saturday's incursion said there had been a "colossal failure" as she described how they were "taken from their beds".

Sharone Lifschitz told ITV's Good Morning Britain, her mother, 85 and father, 83, were taken hostage by the Islamist militants along with between 75 to 80 people who lived in a kibbutz near the Gaza strip.

Fighting began after a surprise attack on Israel by Hamas militants on Saturday and is now into its fifth day. More than 2,200 people on both sides on the conflict have so far known to have died.

Ms Lifschitz said her parents had been holed up in a safe room in their home as they waited 11 hours for the Israeli army or police to arrive.

Her parents, who both have health conditions, had told Ms Lifschitz's uncle they had felt "safe" and expected the Israeli military to secure their kibbutz.

But help never arrived.

"They were taken, simply taken. With babies, mothers and elderly people," she said.

"We have no information, no idea where they are."

Hamas has warned it will kill the hostages that it has taken every time Israel’s military bombs civilian targets in Gaza without warning.

Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, said the country is committed to bringing the hostages home and issued a warning to Hamas, which controls Gaza.

Ms Litschitz urged authorities to think of the hostages as she spoke of her parents' friendships with people across the Gaza border.

She said: "The children of Gaza will not have a safe house. They're our neighbours, we can hear the bombs."

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'We have incredibly little time'

The Israeli military says it is preparing to "execute the mission" against Hamas after mobilising hundreds of thousands of military reservists near the Gaza border ahead of a possible ground invasion.

But Ms Lifschitz is calling on all governments to ask for the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

"My mother sleeps with oxygen and she was asleep at 8.30 when my father spoke to my uncle and she was taken out of her bed," she said.

"My father has a lung disease...

"They are not alone, I was looking at the photos and if you have ever been to a kibbutz, it is the whole dining room there. These are the people who brought us up, these are our families.

"There are children and babies, we're just piecing together the stories and we have heard nothing from them."

She continued: "We have incredibly little time, we have to talk about these hostages. We have to bring them back home. There will be time to think about what happened but at the moment we have to bring these people home.

"It is the biggest massacre of Jews since the holocaust, all this needs to be thought about, but we need to try and bring these people home now.

"My parents were on this side of the border, but they always thought about the people on the other side.

"My father does not believe these people are our enemy, he believes Palestinian people need help when they are ill.

"He spends one or two days a week going to the border to help with Israeli and Palestinian organisations to do his duty as a human being."