Special operation was coordinated by the Army and the SHIN BET Internal Security Agency, according to the head of government
The Israeli Prime Minister, announced on Thursday (5) that the Army was able to recover the bodies of two Israeli American citizens murdered in the attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023 and kidnapped since the Gaza Strip. The special operation was coordinated by the Army and the Shin Bet Internal Security Agency, according to the head of government. Thanks to this operation, “Israel were returned to the bodies of two of our hostages that were in the hands of the murderous terrorist organization Hamas: Judy Weinstein-Haggai and Gad Haggai, from Kibbutz Nir Oz. That his memory is blessed,” said the premie. “Judy and Gad were murdered on October 7 and taken to the Gaza Strip,” he added. According to a statement from Kibbutz Nir Oz, the couple, who had seven children and seven grandchildren, were “murdered and kidnapped on October 7 in the field near their home” in this agricultural community, a few kilometers from Gaza.
Gadi Haggai, who was 72 at the time of the murder, was “a dynamic man (…) very close to the earth,” and his wife Judy Weinstein Haggai, 70, was a “English -needed English teacher,” according to Kibbutz. Hamas’s attack on October 2023, which triggered the war, caused the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 55 remain in captivity in Gaza, of which at least 32 died, according to Israeli authorities. More than 54,600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, died in the Israeli military campaign of reprisal, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health, considered reliable by the UN.
Posted by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from AFP
