The bodies of hostages Judith Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Gadi Haggai, were retrieved by the IDF in the early hours of Thursday morning in a special forces operation performed in collaboration with intelligence from the Shin Bet and the IDF, the military announced.
The Mujahideen Brigades kidnapped and held the bodies of the two in Gaza after they were murdered on October 7 in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Their deaths were determined in December 2023.
IDF forces carried out the rescue operation under the Southern Command. The information that allowed their retrieval into Israeli territory was learned during an interrogation of a captured terrorist.
After an identification process at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, together with the Israel Police, the Hostage and Missing Persons Team in the IDF’s Personnel Directorate notified the family and the Nir Oz community.
Weinstein Haggai, 70, and Haggai, 72, both held American citizenship, and Weinstein Haggai additionally held Canadian citizenship.
They left behind four children and seven grandchildren.
Weinstein Haggai was an English teacher specializing in children with special needs and worked with children with anxiety by using meditation and mindfulness methods. She was a poet and entrepreneur, and was dedicated to working for peace and brotherhood, the kibbutz said when her death was announced.
The kibbutz stated that Haggai was “a sharp person, a gifted musician from the age of three, a chef and a follower of a healthy vegan diet.”
Nir Oz welcomes closure of receiving bodies of hostages
“We welcome the closure that we have been granted and the return for burial of our loved ones, who went out for a walk on that Black Sabbath morning and never came back,” the Weinstein Haggai family said in a statement, according to Nir Oz.
The families thanked the IDF and security forces who carried out the complex rescue operation. They also thanked “everyone who supported, struggled, prayed, and fought for us and for all of Israel,” as well as the FBI, and the US and Israeli governments.
“However, our hearts will not be whole until all 12 hostages from Nir Oz and all 56 hostages in total are brought back,” the statement concluded.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that the return of their bodies “reminds us all that it is the state’s duty to bring everyone home, so that we, the families, together with all the people of Israel, can begin the process of healing and recovery.
“Decision-makers must do everything necessary to reach an agreement that will return all 56 remaining hostages—the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for burial. There is no need to wait another 608 agonizing days for this. The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of the Israeli people want,” the forum said.
“A grave is not a privilege,” the forum stressed. “A grave is a basic human right, without which personal and national recovery is impossible.”
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