The sister of a teenager being held hostage by Hamas has revealed the last text message she sent to her concerned relatives, moments before being taken into Gaza during the 7 October attack.
Karina Ariev, 19, was last seen in a terrifying video released this week, which showed her wearing her Snoopy pyjamas as she was threatened with rape, before being taken from her bed.
Just minutes before she was kidnapped, she sent a final text message to her older sister Sasha, urging her to remain strong.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, her 24-year-old sister, who has paused her neuroscience studies to focus on the hostage situation, said Karina understood “this could be the end”.
“I could see the understanding in her eyes, and few minutes later she sent me a message that if she won’t leave, if she won’t make it out alive, she asked me to keep our parents safe and to be strong and not to wallow in sorrow but to continue living,” Sasha said.
“She didn’t tell my parents to look after me. She told me to look after our parents. This is how we are. We are strong, and this is the bond between us and how we were holding this family together.”
Her family decided to release the footage alongside the families of Liri Albag, 19, Naama Levy, 19, Daniela Gilboa, 20, and Agam Berger, 19, all of whom are still being kept inside the besieged enclave.
Despite negotiations ensuring the release of some captives, a number of Israelis remain hostage and under consistent bombardment.
“We just realised now that we are almost eight months on, that people are forgetting and that there is no deal in the horizon and we do not know where we are going through,” Sasha explained.
“So we thought that instead of talking, we will just show this video and the evidence will talk for itself. We wanted people to see and to maybe feel a little of the pain that we’re feeling every day. To understand that when we close our eyes, this is what we see. And even worse.”
While the full footage is 15 minutes long and is too graphic to be shown in full to the public, it shows the terror of those who were abducted by the terrorists.
“I could see her eyes pleading for help,” Sasha said. “I could see helplessness. Like she is a little baby looking for help. Like, “please help me. I don’t know what is going on here. There are grenades. I’m wounded. My best friend is lying dead in front of me.”
At the time she was taken hostage, Karina had been staying in an army base on the border of Gaza.
Despite the anguish her family are going through, Sasha has travelled the world and conducted over 100 interviews to raise awareness of her sister’s plight.
“I gave my promise to my sister that I will look after them,” she said.
“She’s the one who is really fighting there. So I have no privilege to say that it’s hard for me or something, So I’m letting my parents be more emotional, like parents are, and I’m always saying that I’m strong and no one can break me no matter what.
“I’m doing everything I can to bring Karina back alive as soon as possible. And only afterwards will I allow myself to cry. Only tears of joy.”