“All Canadians and people of conscience around the world should be calling for her release and condemning Hamas criminality. Thinking of her family,” the former cabinet minister said.
In the biography published in August 2018, Ms. Silver said she had been a kibbutz member for almost 45 years and spent the last 28 years on Kibbutz Beeri, also spelled Be'eri, located in southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip.
Israel was attacked by the terrorist organization Hamas in the early hours of Oct. 7. The attacks involved air strikes followed by terrorists shooting civilians on the ground in Israeli cities near the Gaza Strip.
Hostages
Israeli military officers have indicated that Hamas militants will potentially attempt to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages. Residents living near areas bordering the Gaza Strip were warned that gunmen were going door to door taking captives.
The area where Ms. Silver lived, Kibbutz Be'eri, just under three miles southeast from the border with Gaza in southern Israel, is where video obtained by The New York Times (NYT) showed several people being taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.
In the footage, at least five people with their hands behind their backs are being led on a road by armed men on foot and on motorcycles, according to the NYT in an article on Oct. 7.
The NYT said that where the group ended up is unclear but that Israel news outlets suggested that up to 50 hostages were being held in a dining room in Kibbutz Be'eri.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas, claimed in a statement that the terrorist group had hidden “dozens of hostages” in “safe places and the tunnels of the resistance,” the NYT article said.
Reports suggested that Hamas soldiers even took an elderly Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair as a captive into Gaza.