On Thursday, the Nir Oz community in southern Israel announced the killing of an Israeli-American hostage who had been held since the attack launched by Hamas on October 7, several days after announcing the killing of her husband.
Agence France-Presse quoted the group’s statement as saying: “Judith Weinstein Hagai was injured during the October 7th attack, and her death in Saturday’s attack has now been allowed to be announced.” She died from her wounds.
Weinstein-Hagai is considered the oldest woman detained by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as she is 70 years old. She is “a mother of four and a grandmother of seven, and she worked as an English teacher specializing in working with people with special needs and those who suffer from concentration problems.”
She was kidnapped with her husband, Gad Hagai (73 years old), whose death in October was announced on Saturday. Their bodies are still in the Gaza Strip.
Their son, Al Hagai, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse this month, “I want to believe that she is still alive, but (…) I am not sure.”
US President Joe Biden said in a previous statement that he was “saddened by the news that American Gad Hagai is now believed to have been killed by Hamas on October 7.”
The attack launched by Hamas led to the death of about 1,140 people on the Israeli side, the majority of whom were civilians, according to official Israeli figures. About 250 people were taken hostage. There are still 129 hostages in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel, which promised to eliminate the Palestinian Islamic movement, has been bombing the Gaza Strip since October 7, killing 21,320 people, most of them women and children.
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2023-12-28 16:53:47
