Israeli military recovers two hostages’ bodies in southern Gaza

Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of two Americans brought back to Gaza as hostages during the Hamas attack against South Israel on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army said.

Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, who was also a Canadian citizen, and her husband Gadi Haggai, 72, were murdered by armed men from the Mujahideen brigades group when they attacked Kibbutz Nir Oz, according to a statement.

Their bodies were found in the southern region of Khan Younis in Gaza overnight and brought back to Israel for forensic identification.

There are now 56 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, at least 20 of which are supposed to be alive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his wife had sent their condolences to the families of Judi and Gadi Haggai.

“Our hearts cry this terrible loss. May their memories be blessed,” he added.

“I would like to thank and thank the fighters and the commanders for this determined and successful operation. We will not rest, and we will not be silent, until we returned to the house all our hostages – the living and the deceased.”

The couple’s families remembered how they “came out for a walk in the morning of this cursed on Saturday and never returned.”

“We welcome the closure and their return to an appropriate burial at home, in Israel,” they said.

Judi, English teacher, and Gadi Haggai, who worked in the kitchen of Kibbutz Nir Oz, were seen for the last time in a video they shared with a group cat at the start of the October 7 attack. They were seen covering themselves in a field while incoming rockets from Gaza striated above and the sound of the shots was heard.

Judi later said to his friends and parents that they had been injured, before stopping to contact.

The couple’s daughter, Iris Weinstein Haggai, said that after the attack, her mother told her that they had been “slaughtered by terrorists on a motorcycle and that my father had been very bad”. She added: “Paramedical paramedics tried to send him an ambulance. The ambulance was struck by a rocket.”

In December 2023, Kibbutz announced that Judi and Gadi had been killed that day and that their bodies were held hostage in Gaza.

On Wednesday, an Israeli military official said that the couple’s bodies had been recovered in the Khan Younis region following an operation based on “precise information” of the Israeli defense forces (FDI) and the Shin Bet security service.

They said they could not disclose more details due to the sensitivity of the operation. However, the Israeli army radio reported that the information had been obtained by the interrogation by a fighter by a fighter from a Palestinian fighter captured by Israeli troops in Gaza.

“We will continue to do the maximum for the mission to bring our hostages – the living, to find their families and deceased it to worthy burial. We will deploy all the methods and tools in our provision for this objective,” said the military manager.

The removal forum and missing families urged decision-makers to do everything they could to agree on a new ceasefire agreement with Hamas to guarantee the return of all the remaining hostages.

“There is no need to wait 608 dying days for this,” he said. “The mission can be over tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of Israelis want.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was “united in prayer” for the Haggai family.

“Hamas must release all the remaining hostages, including Omer Neutra and Itay Chen,” he added, referring to two other American Israelites who, according to the Israeli army, were killed on October 7 while serving as soldiers and whose bodies were brought back to Gaza.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said: “The return of their remains is the time to start healing and resting. We mourn with [Judi Haggai’s] family. May his memory be a blessing. “”

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented cross -border attack almost 20 months ago, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Four other people, two dead, were already retained captive in Gaza before the conflict.

Until now, 199 hostages have been returned, including 148 alive, mainly through two temporary ceasefire agreements with Hamas.

At least 54,677 people were killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Ministry of Health of the territory.

Israel imposed a total blockade in Gaza on March 2 and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, to collapse a two -month truce during which 33 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages were released. Israel said he wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

On May 19, the Israeli army launched an enlarged offensive which, according to Netanyahu, would see troops “taking control of all regions” of Gaza. Israel has also partially attenuated its blockade, allowing food in the territory in the warnings of experts in imminent famine.

More than 4,400 people were reportedly killed in Gaza in the last three months, while 640,000 others have been moved again by Israeli soil operations and evacuation orders.

The hopes of a new cease-fire agreement disappeared last week, Hamas and Israel remaining in contradiction on the conditions of the last American proposal.

Hamas said it was ready to release 10 living hostages and the 18 dead bodies, which was the number specified in the proposal of the American envoy Steve Witkoff, in exchange for a 60 -day truce and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

But the group also repeated its guarantee requests that the truce would lead to a permanent ceasefire, as well as to a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the resumption of non-restricted aid deliveries.

Israel described Hamas’ declaration a refusal of the proposal, and Witkoff said it was completely unacceptable. But an official of Hamas insisted that he had acted positively and in a responsible manner.