Last week, the Jewish Community of Oporto requested the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, for Portugal to do everything to rescue the missing Portuguese citizens, almost certainly kidnapped by Hamas. There is hope that Hamas may be interested in releasing people of nationality other than exclusively Israeli.

The Sephardic lineage of those sacrificed was shared so that they never to be seen as second-class Portuguese citizens

The following missing citizens are identified to date:

1) Idan Shtivi. 28 years old.

The son of Dali Oron (Naftali Benveniste) of Bulgarian family origin. His family names are present in the former communities of Bulgaria, Thessaloniki ("Kahal Kadosh Portugal", "Kahal Kadosh Lisbon", "Kahal Kadosh Évora"), Smyrna ("Kahal Kadosh Portugal" and "Endowing Orphans"), Morocco, Tunisia, Hamburg, Livorno and others.

2) Gilad Ben Yehuda, 28 years old.

The son of Sochi Gali Gavriel Eskenazi of a traditional Turkish Sephardic family, who for centuries preserved the use of the Ladino language, with records of this family in the Portuguese synagogues of Edirne and Adrianople ("Kahal Kadosh" Portugal and "Kahal Kadosh" Évora), as well as in the Jewish institutions of Smyrna, the "Kahal Kadosh Portugal" and the institution "Endow Orphans".

3) Moshe Saadyan, 26 years old.

The son of Vered Moshe (Zubi), of a traditional Sephardic family of the ancient Ottoman Empire, specifically in Turkey and in ancient Palestine, and of a Moroccan Sephardic family with the name Bouskila.

4) Orin Bira, 53 years old.

The son of Simcha Kasorlla of a traditional Sephardic family of the ancient Ottoman Empire, specifically in the Balkans, former Yugoslavia, with habitual use of Ladino, which mixes words from the Portuguese, Castilian, Turkish, Greek and Hebrew languages.

There is also information on two Portuguese citizens who were murdered.

5) Rotem Neumann (Kadosh). 25 years old.

A descendant of Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin, from both parents, of traditional Sephardic families of the Mediterranean and the Balkans.

6) Dorin Atias. 22 years old.

The family names are present in the Jewish communities of Portuguese origin in Izmir, Thessaloniki, Bulgaria, Livorno and others. In the form "Athias,"  it is a family name that is common among Jews who, in the 19th and 20th centuries returned to Portugal from Gibraltar and Morocco, having ended up buried in the British cemetery of Estrela and in the Jewish cemeteries of Lisbon and Faro.

One more name. Seriously injured; in Hadassah hospital.

7) Menachem Hillel Ben Kalifa. 22 years old.

The son of Rephael Ben Kalifa, who is the son of Miriam Attar Assayag, a family of the traditional Sephardic community of Morocco. In the 19th and 20th centuries, elements of this family returned to Portugal, with records of their names in the Jewish cemeteries of Lisbon and the Azores.

The massacre.

On Simchat Torah, as Jews in Israel gathered at synagogues to celebrate the joyous Simchat Torah holiday, the Hamas terrorist organization launched a large-scale surprise infiltration, the likes of which Israel hasn't seen in decades.

In an assault of shocking breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations in southern Israel on Saturday morning, including towns and smaller communities as far as 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gaza border. In some places, they roamed for hours, gunning down civilians and soldiers as Israel’s military scrambled to muster a response. At the same time, thousands of rockets were fired at towns in the south and center.

According to the most recent estimates, the death toll from Hamas onslaught passes 1400, over 160 kidnapped, and over 3,500 wounded. Relatives of the missing issue impassioned pleas for help.

The Oporto Jewish Community, stated that “When all possible means are used to massacre innocent people, and young people, women, babies and even elderly people in wheelchairs are kidnapped, for the sole reason that they are Israeli Jews, the only possible reaction is the elimination of the hydra, which in fact says it is prepared to attack all over the world. The happiest day in the Jewish calendar (Simchat Torah) has given way to crying in synagogues, where people ask about the human rights of Jews and don't want to hear any more empty words.”

In turn, on its Facebook page, the Jewish Community of Lisbon stated that "the state of Israel has the unequivocal right to defend itself from these and future attacks, as well as to commit the full capacity of its security forces to protect its territorial integrity and the defense of its population. The Jewish Community of Lisbon stands in solidarity with the people of Israel and with all those whose lives were stolen or affected by terrorist actions."