At 7:56 am on Oct. 7, 2023, Ronit Sultan, the daughter of Argentine immigrants, texted her daughter-in-law to “take care of yourself” as rockets from Gaza flew overhead.
Ten minutes later, Ronit texted a friend that Hamas terrorists were “trying to get in” to her house in Kibbutz Holit, one of the kibbutzim along the Israeli border with Gaza.
The kibbutzim in the area were known for residents’ efforts to build peaceful relations with their Palestinian neighbors, including helping Gazans get medical attention and addressing other needs. A mother of two and longtime childhood educator, Ronit was killed alongside her husband.
“Please send help,” Ofelia Roitman, an Argentine grandmother of nine from Kibbutz Nir Oz, texted her family that morning, “the Palestinians are here.” Only later was her family notified that she had been taken hostage.
In Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha, Silvia Mirensky, a retired widow from Argentina, fled to her saferoom as terrorists entered the kibbutz. Hours later, while on the phone with her son, they set her house ablaze. “I am burning; I am choking,” she told her son. Silvia was found dead the next day.
The youngest Israeli abducted on Oct. 7 was nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, a dual Israeli-Argentine citizen. Kfir is the grandson of Yossi Silberman, an Argentine immigrant who was murdered on Oct. 7. Almost 300 days later, Kfir and his family are among the nine Argentines believed to remain in captivity in Gaza.
Across southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas murdered some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 240 women, children and men. Among those killed were nine Argentine nationals, while 21 Argentines were later confirmed to have been taken hostage by the estimated 3,000 terrorists who infiltrated Israel by land, air and sea on that black Shabbat.
On July 12, Argentina’s President Javier Milei added Hamas to the country’s terrorism list. The designation comes 30 years after Iran-backed terrorists used a truck laden with over 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate to bomb the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 and injuring hundreds.
Listing Hamas as a terrorist organization is the latest development in Argentina’s three-decade-long struggle with terror sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Two years before the AMIA attack, another Iranian proxy bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 civilians. This past April, Argentina’s highest criminal court found Iran had organized, financed and planned both attacks, which it proclaimed constitute “crimes against humanity.” Following the ruling, Milei declared “the era of impunity is over” for Iran’s terror.
But for many who survived the AMIA bombing, the scars from 30 years of suffering were reopened on Oct. 7. Eitan and Yair Horn, two brothers taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, are the sons of Itzik Horn, a journalist who moved to Israel from Argentina after surviving the 1994 AMIA bombing. Abi Korin was killed while defending his kibbutz from Hamas terrorists. Korin’s father Moshe is a former AMIA culture secretary.
Hezbollah, the group responsible for carrying out the AMIA bombing, receives an estimated $700 million annually from Tehran, while Hamas reportedly receives $100 million annually in financial and military support.
Hamas killed four other Argentines during its genocidal onslaught on Oct. 7. Rody Skarisevski, a father of three, was driving to pick up his youngest daughter from Beersheva when he was shot and killed in his car. His son Yonatan, a reserve soldier, later discovered his body.
Matías and Einav Burstein, an Argentine couple from northern Israel, were killed while fleeing the Nova Music Festival. Shoshana Karsenty, who fled Argentina for Israel as an orphan, was 85 when terrorists murdered her in her home in Kibbutz Be’eri. Haim Livne, 87, who moved to Israel from Argentina in 1956, was a staple of Kibbutz Nahal Oz for 40 years until he too was killed in his home.
Last November, 10 Argentines were freed in a hostage deal. The terrorists released Sharon Cunio and her daughters, along with Karina Engel, her two sons Mika and Yuval, Clara Marman, Gabriela and Mia Leimberg and Ofelia Roitman. In February, Clara’s husband Fernando and Gabriela’s partner Louis Har, were rescued by the IDF.
Among the nine Argentines still held in Gaza are the Bibas family: parents Yarden and Shiri and their two children, Ariel and Kfir. On the morning of Oct. 7, as Hamas terrorists invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz, Yarden and Shiri attempted to keep their young children quiet. Shiri was a “mother not just for her children,” according to her cousin. “In Nir Oz, all the children ran to her when they saw her.” As she was taken hostage, Shiri was seen clutching her two sons, while Yarden was seen surrounded by terrorists, separated from his family. While in captivity, Yarden was reportedly told by Hamas that his family had been killed by IDF airstrikes.
The remaining five hostages believed to still be held captive are brothers David and Ariel Cunio, the Horn brothers and Lior Rudaeff. David, along with his wife Sharon and their twin daughters Yulia and Emma, were celebrating the holiday weekend with family at their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. On Oct. 7, they hid in their saferoom until Hamas terrorists lit their house on fire. Faced with suffocating smoke inside the saferoom and terrorists outside, the family attempted to flee but were abducted and brought to Gaza. Rudaeff, a medic from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was confirmed to have died while in captivity in May.
Following Milei’s designation of Hamas, media coverage widely reported the decision as something done merely to support Israel. Designating Hamas does support Israel but, more importantly, it serves as an essential component in seeking justice for Argentina’s victims of Oct. 7. With so many Argentines killed and kidnapped by the Iran-backed terrorist organization, it is abundantly clear that Argentina not only has the legal justification to list the group but a responsibility to do so as well.
Argentina’s designation should be a model to emulate for other countries whose citizens were brazenly murdered by Hamas but have not yet blacklisted the terror group.