welcome to "the whole story." i'm anderson cooper in tel aviv. as we've seen this weekend israel's war with hamas has entered a new phase. what that means for the more than 200 people held hostage in gaza is unclear. most hostages were taken on october 7th from israeli communities or kibbutz close to the gaza border. on a kibbutz it is estimated a quarter of the 400 or so people who lived there were either killed or captured. the whole story of what happened is only now really coming to light. tonight we want you to meet those who survived the attack and are now fighting for answers about what happened to their missing loved ones and neighbors. >> this was the nir oz kibbutz before october 7. >> nir oz has huge and beautiful fields all around it. many are potatoes with some peanuts and carrots and many other crops. >> it's like you walk without shoes with your dogs. >> it's one of the places you could still come and hear the birds singing. >> it was a tightly knit community of some 400 men, women, and children. >> it's like a big family. >> the community of the kibbutz is very close. >> it is a special place, nir oz. >> reporter: sharon grew up in nir oz just a mile and a half from gaza. >> the kibbutz was a utopia if you wish. i always tell people we were brought up in utopia and in many ways it was wonderful. >> reporter: her parents were peace activists who helped found the kibbutz in the 1950s. >> it was built by a lot of people that came from cities that already grew up in israel. they were not holocaust survivors. so they had kind of a light atmosphere, i think, than many other places. >> what brought them together is they believe in human rightsts. they belelieve in pepeace. they b believe thahat everybodo all nations, all religions, deserve to live in peace. >> reporter: her parents were among the founders as well. >> members of the kibbutz each have their own job and way of life, but they gather a lot for joint meals anand holidaysys an otheher occasionons and they ha this community both for taking together decisions and celebrating holidays. >> reporter: on october 7th the kibbutz had just finished celebrating the last day of a religious holiday. at dawn as the security cameras show, there was no sign of danger. >> 6:00 in t the morningng everytything looksks rather non. you know, most of the people are sleeping. a couple wake up early in order to go on a walk. >> reporter: at 6:06 a.m. this man and his wife judy headed out the front gate for their morning walk. around 6:30 they recorded this video showing in the distance rockets firing from gaza. a red alert was called immediately. the couple sent this video to a group chat at 6:42 a.m. they haven't been heard from since. >> i could hear the red which means we have to go to the safe room, to the shelter. i am all alone in my own house. my children with their father in the other house. >> reporter: her youngest kids were with their father in his house nearby. her 19-year-old son was in his own house. her mother was in her home with her 13-year-old granddaughter who is autistic. >> our grandma was her best friend. that is why she was with her. >> reporter: that is her oldest daughter who lives in tel aviv. >> when everything is happening i talk to my mom, my dad, my sister, my grandma. >> reporter: by 6:49 a.m. hamas gunmen were at the front gate. a security camera shows bullets hitting an emptyty guard house. >> by the yellow man gate you have a booth which someone usually guards the entrance. no one is there and you see shots over there and then you see the hole in the glass and everything is shattered. >> reporter: seconds later gunmen enter the kibbutz. others from gaza besides hamas gunmen also appeared -- men and some young people wanting to be part of the attack or just witness it up close. hadas was in her safe room exchanging messages with her family and neighbors. >> even one girl, she tell me i have a picture that my mom is on the floor with blood and the terrorist with a gun is just behind her. the daughter she called me. she asked me. do you know about that? is it a fake picture? is it true? >> reporter: it was true. the 74-year-old woman, adored by generations of kids she helped raise on the kibbutz was among the first to be murdered. >> this is her home. it is completely torched. we know the gunmen broke in and killed her here. they murdered her. they gained access to her facebook account and posted a live image of her lying on the ground in a pool of blood surrounded by armed men. they wanted her friends and family to see. groups of gunmen went house to house, block by block, capturing some, killing others. > one of ththe terrorisists hididing then apparently he hea something, an engine of a car, an israeli car approaching the gate so he stands up immediately approaching the gate and fires and fires. >> our kibbutz had a problem. they came and they went house by house, house by house. >> many residents had made it to their safe rooms but the fortified shelters were built to protect from rockets not terrorists on the ground. you can tell gunmen tried to pry this door open. this handle has nearly been pulled off from tugging it. it looks like they tried to pry open the door as well. you can fit your hand through here. they could just maybe look in but they couldn't actually break through this door. the family in this house survived in their safe room though at least one of them was wounded. there is blood all over the bed and sheets. like many, hadas's safe room didn't lock from the inside. for hours she held the door handle to stop gunmen from getting in. >> i'm in the safe room but i'm holding my door. i am all alone and i have to survive. i hold it with my leg. after a while i cry of pain. i take a metal that my son made for support -- >> reporter: a pullup bar. >> yes. i put it in the door. i didn't think i'm going to survive this. i send a message to my family. >> reporter: her 12-year-old son texted her at 8:15 a.m. mom, be silent he wrote. i really love you. minutes later she wrote in her family group chat you are my life. hope that we'll go through this and survive. love you so much. her 16-year-old daughter wrote back, mom, take care of yourself. love you. the father of her kids texted hadas to say he had escaped the safe room ththrough the window with their kids and they were hiding in the bushes. she responded, are you crazy? go back to the shelter quickly. >> then my battery is gone. i don't have a phone. light is gone. i am in the dark. no water. no food. no nothing. just me and god. and the terrorists. eight hours from 6:30 in the morning till 3:00 afternoon. >> reporter: her daughter in tel aviv cut off from her family started to scroll through social media where hamas was now posting horrific images. >> this was so hard but i knew i had to do it, so i was trying to find something and then i saw -- that was so hard to watch but then i told myself, okay. he's okay. he's alive. >> gaia and her family want people to know what happened. this video shows him being dragged away by gunmen, one of whom appears to have blood on his hand. we geo located where the video was shot. this is the last known location. he was kidnapped by hamas gunmen and videotaped as they were dragging him away in this direction. this is the fence to the kibbutz. gaza is only about a mile and a half away. >> i miss him so much. he is small. he is 12 years old. he's never been so far for so many days so far from me even in normal conditions. he is a very, very funny guy. he make everybody laugh around him. we always sit together and we laugh. he is small but he have a huge humor. and he love to ride horses. he love to ride bike. mountain bike. he love to play football, ping-pong. >> reporter: his dad has not appeared in any videos, nor has his sister. hadas and gaia believe they are being held hostage in gaza. >> she loved to draw. >> i can show you something we did. >> reporter: that's hers? >> yeah. it is just the beginning. you know i can hear them all the time in my ear even. mom, mom, save me. save me. come to get me. i miss you. i miss you. >> reporter: the bodies of hadas's mother and her granddaughter were identified about a week ago. they were among the more than two dozen residents in nir oz known to have been murdered during the attack. >> you want to tell me about your grandma? >> the best grandma in the world. i used to stay with her for hours and just talk to her about my problems. >> reporter: she was good to talk to? >> yes. she always want to know about everything that's going on. >> reporter: she was 80 years old. her granddaughter was 13. ahead, more on the hostages taken from nir oz. >> i recognize her immediately . i was the first to step inside nir oz and i came and started documenting two days after the atrocities took place. >> this man is a war correspondent and documentary film maker for israel's channel 12. >> the first impression is the smell, because you smell death. imagine you see nylon bags with body parts. imaginine you see e tiny littles of b babies. and then there is the sound, which is absolutely silent. nothing but birds. birds and the chimes. >> more than a week later when we were able to get to nir oz and take these imageges there w still that strange, sickening silence. the birds, flies, breeze blowing through broken windows. the residents were gone. only their cats remained. no family, no home was untouched by terror. the gunmen who came to this kibbutz had hours to roam the grounds freely. they killed men, women, and children in their homes, on the streets, in their cars, and they spent a lot of time rifling through people's possessions, seeing what they could take, looting whatever they wanted. people's possessions were still strewn about. it appears someone tried to hot wire this car. nearly every home had been de filed. this is what was left of this home, torched by gunmen. you can still see plates in the dish washer. >> my grandmother, she always told me this is the best place to live. >> reporter: her granddaughter said the couple lived in nir oz for more than 50 years. >> i grew up in their house, spent there every joyful family moment. it all burned down. >> reporter: she recorded this video when she went back to her grandparents' house. she knew what to expect but still it was overwhelming. >> i still had my grandmother's bracelet. she gave it to me. yeah. she gave it to me one month ago before everything happened. >> reporter: her grandparents hid in their safe room when the gunmen came. she messaged everyone they were okay. we are perfectly all right she wrote. there are still noises of light guns shooting outside. other than that locked in the shelter until further instructions. >> my grandmother was a very, very strong woman. she didn't want us to be panicked. >> she was worried about you. >> yes. she is this kind of woman. she always takes care of us. later we found her phone inside the shelter. >> reporter: she said david was shot through the door of their safe room. three bullet holes are visible. his dried blood is all over the floor. this is where he died, crouching, holding on to the door handle. at 9:44 a.m. she sent her last message. she wrote her husband was gravely wounded and gunmen were still trying to enter the shelter. the door handle david held on to is still on the floor. gunmen took her through the safe room window. by midday this video appeared online. >> i recognized her immediately. >> reporter: that's adina between the two gunmen on a motor bike in gaza. >> did you see adina? the red shirt. and they took her. when i was young, she used to call me and give me candies always. she would be like come, come, come. i will give you some candies and she was so sweet. >> adina was one of the people who when we were in the elementary school, she was the one that was taking care of us. and still as a grown up when i would come to visit the e kibbu she always gives me e a hug and asked how am i and she is happy to see my kids grow. >> david moshi was buried in nir oz a week after the attack. he had been married to her for 53 years. >> we promised him to fight for my grandmother, but i will not live in an angry way. >> reporter: you don't want to live with hate in your heart. >> no. this is not our way. >> reporter: at his funeral, this video was played from a celebration in nir oz earlier this year. that is david singing. then one by one other members of the kibbutz join in. >> this is what the song means. time will fix all the breaks. you are allowed to be afraid. you are allowed to be sad. but tomorrow we can rebuild and recover. >> reporter: when we return -- two more hostages, more than 200 still being held on their way home. hostages are set free. >> my mom is back. >> reporter: and survivors demand answers. >> they were betrayed by the state. the power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. it is 3:00 a.m. in israel the early hours of freedom for an american mother and daughter held hostage nearly two weeks by hamas. they were the first hostages to be released from captivity. the two americans were visiting judah's mother, natalie's grandmother, at a kibbutz about 18 miles north of nir oz when they were kidnapped. how are judith and natalie doing? >> judith and natalie, they are doing okay. they are taking their time to heal and to process what they have been through, what the entire family and nation has been through. >> reporter: while judith and natalie made it out, their cousin believes nine more of their family members are still being held hostage. >> we have a 3-year-old and an 18-year-old brother and sister and we have a 12-year-old so three children in our family. we haven't been given a sign of life or any indication as to how they're doing. this is truly heart breaking, very hard to sleep at night. >> reporter: a few days later two elderly women were also released. a 79-year-old woman and 85-year-old woman. both from nir oz. her daughter sharon was by her mother's side at the hospital in tel aviv when she describebed h harrrrowing journeney to report. >> i wenent through hehell. they went on a rampage in our kibbutz. i was kidnapped. as i was lying on the side on the motor bike, legs here, body there. ththe shabab hitit me with stit. they didn't break my ribs but it was very painful and made it hard for me to breathe. >> reporter: she said she was taken into an underground tunnel. >> there they walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground. there are a huge network of tunnels underneath. it looks like a spider web. >> when she first arrived they told them that they are muslims and they are not going to hurt them. >> reporter: how is your mother doing? >> my mom is looking okay. a bit thinner. it seems she did get basic medical care. the nurses said she's very sharp and communicative and wants to tell everybody what she knows. i think your body, your mind, everything goes into quite a different state, so it seems to me she somehow had a theory that carried her through. >> sharon's mother was criticized in israel because when she was released she shook the hand of a hamas gunman. >> reporter: what did you think when you saw that? >> it is very typical of my mom. she loves humans. >> reporter: even though these people were holding her hostage she is the kind of person who sees them as a human being. >> yes. she acknowledged him as a human being. horrific as everything is she kind of couldn't stop herself. >> reporter: sharon's father, 83 years old, is still missing. they believe he is being held hostage. >> my father and mother got separated early on. my father it seems was injured and we don't know more about him. so we are still in the dark. you know, my mom is back and that is a ray of light. an amazing, beautiful bright ray of light. but there is a lot of darkness. you've been to the kibbutz. you have seen what we are facing. people are going for funerals every day. i'm sitting here talking to you not just to rejoice about my mom's return, wonderful as it is, but to remind everyone that we are still in the situation. that there's over 200 people missing and that we want them back. >> reporter: sharon grew up in nir oz and knows many of the families who lost loved ones. were you shocked by the scale, the brutality? >> horrified. it was beyond anything, anything we ever imagined. and the army did not come for seven, eight hours. this is exactly what israel was built for, isn't it? to protect the jewish people. it totally failed in that this time. >> reporter: israel's prime minister, benjnjamin netanyahu, has yet t to publicly y accept responsibilility for his government's's failures on octor 7th, but several high ranking members of the military and intetelligence serervices have. >> the lack of awareness by idf and shin bet did great damage to us. >> these people in nir oz are what we call the salt of the earth. they were betrayed by the state. ththe people o of the kibbbbutz smugglgled me insiside. the army prevented people from coming, filming, and documenting it. [ speaking in global language ] >> they are crashing all of them. >> when hadas was hiding alone in her safe room she messaged her children that help was on the way. this will end very soon and idf will help. don't worry. we are stronger than them. now she, too, feels betrayed. >> eight hours we've been alone, alone, alone. nobody helps us. >> reporter: no army. >> nobody helps us. we've been alone. >> reporter: the government has abandoned you now. >> yes. they are. where are they? where are they? they say the war in hamas, to kill hamas is more important. you can't make war on expense of children and babies and old, sick people. >> reporter: how do you get through each day? >> when i start to think about it i am crushed. how can i save them? >> reporter: sharon knows hadas' family well, including her niece who was killed. >> to lose her and all these kids will break my parents' hearts. >> reporter: your mom and dad would have wanted the children to be released first. >> yeah. my father taught her the piano and my mom would make her cookies. she was one of her kibbutz grandchildren. >> reporter: there is nobody in this kibbutz in this community who is not intimately connected with somebody else who was taken. >> there is no one. we are devastated. how do we come out of this trauma? i don't know. how do we make something that is worth living for? >> reporter: do you have that answer? >> i just think, be kind. i really do believe that we should all participate in the little acts of kindness that makes a difference. >> reporter: even now. >> what is the alternative? what is the alternative? you know, the bloodshed now. i don't enjoy any death. no. for anyone. it just makes me so sad that's in our world we are creating so many stories of trauma and destruction. coming up, a mother from nir oz kidnapped while clutching her two children. we are in a nightmare. >> reporter: i first began to focus on what happened at nir oz when i saw this woman on cnn two days after the attack. >> we need everyone's help. >> reporter: she was speaking about her cousin and her two children a 4-year-old boy and 9-month-old boy whose kidnapping from nir oz was recorded and posted online. >> we need everyone to help us. please. >> reporter: her children were so young and her cousin's pain was so raw. the day after this interview aired, i met with her in tel aviv. what do you want people to know about your could i sayin? >> she is a peaceful girl. woman. she is amazing. she is beloved by everyone. she is a