It is difficult to maintain indifference in the face of the harsh scenes emerging from the events of the Swords of Iron war - which has so far claimed the lives of approximately Israeli people, while many have been abducted to the Gaza territories and others have still been declared missing - and members of the media also find themselves speechless, with tears in their eyes.
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During a CNN interview conducted with Yifat Zeiler, an Israeli whose family members were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, she cried out: "We need everyone to help us, please!" When the broadcast led back to Presenter Anderson Cooper, who was broadcasting in Ashdod, could not hold back the tears either.
In a post she published two days ago, Zeiler shared with her friends on Facebook what was happening. "Bring my family back," she pleaded. "This morning the most horrible picture is becoming clearer to us - my cousin Shiri, with her two young children Kafir and Ariel, were brutally kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. We found out about it from documentation on the Internet. Her husband, Jordan, and her two parents - my uncle and aunt Yossi and Margit - were apparently also kidnapped to Gaza and we don't know what happened to them," she added. "My aunt is a very sick woman and needs medical [treatment]... They were kidnapped alive and will return alive. They are innocent citizens."
CNN anchor Nic Robertson chokes up while reporting from Israel
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Cooper was not the only CNN correspondent who had difficulty finishing his report from Israel. In Australia, where Sky News anchor Sherry Markson could not hold back the tears Monday night when she described the abductees to Gaza and the "inhumanity" of the Hamas terrorists in the harsh videos that are being circulated on the internet.
"This is the blackest day for the Jews in decades. Some call it 'Israel's September 11th'... these are simply savages," Markson said Monday on her news program broadcast on Sky. "However, it is the abominable barbarism that makes the attack by Hamas so sickening and unexpected for the State of Israel, which prides itself on its national security and is surrounded by Arab countries that constantly call for its destruction."
Sherry Markson reports for Sky News in Australia
"They show no mercy to the elderly, the women, the children - the babies - kidnapped, captured and led away by men who sneer at them, while being led away from the safety of their homes, their loved ones and their lives as they knew them," Markson continues. "How can humans be so cruel? Laugh and celebrate while they are torturing frightened young people who have their whole lives ahead of them, who were full of hope for their future?"
CNN reporter Nic Robertson also reported from Israel and found it difficult to report. "The security forces in Israel are very careful with their words and in specifying the number of abductees - they say that it is dozens. But today I spoke with a senior member of the IDF and asked him, 'How do you intend to release the abductees?'" Robertson said and then chocked up, apologized and added: "He told me that they will do everything they can to bring everyone back and that no one will be left behind, but I think I also understood from him the great difficulty of succeeding in this mission when Hamas does not give them up and does not say where they are held and whether they are scattered throughout Gaza".