Nearly a year ago, these four Americans were among hundreds of hostages taken into the Gaza Strip. As the months have passed, their families have clung to glimpses of their loved ones, fragments of hope in an ocean of fear. Keith Siegel, a grandfather born in California, was last seen in a video released by Hamas in April, gaunt and weeping.

The BBC has heard accounts given to families of what happened at one military base that guarded the border with Gaza. The Nahal Oz base was overrun by Hamas gunmen on the morning of 7 October and more than 60 Israeli soldiers are reported to have been killed - with others taken hostage.