Husband of Canadian confirmed killed by Hamas in southern Israel on Oct. 7
Kibbutz confirms death of Gadi Haggai, husband of Israeli-Canadian hostage Judith Weinstein Haggai
An Israeli-American man thought to have been taken hostage during the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas in southern Israel has been declared dead.
The death of Gadi Haggai, 73, was announced Friday by the Nir Oz kibbutz. The kibbutz said it had been determined that Haggai was killed in that community on Oct. 7 and his body was taken to Gaza.
Haggai had been thought to have been among more than 100 Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza. The announcement did not say how his death had been determined.
The statement from the kibbutz described Haggai as a "gifted wind instrument player … connected to the earth, a chef and a follower of a healthy vegan diet and sports."
Nir Oz was among the hardest hit Israeli communities on Oct. 7, with roughly a quarter of its residents taken hostage or killed.
Haggai was the husband of Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, who grew up in Canada and holds Canadian and U.S. citizenship. The kibbutz statement said she was wounded and remains in captivity in Gaza.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "heartbroken" by the news of Gadi Haggai's death.
Relatives had spoken to CBC News about the couple.
"We know that Gadi, more than likely based on information that we have … was killed," niece Ali Weinstein told The National late last month. "Judith, we know that she was shot, but we don't know her condition."
Hamas has generally not confirmed these accounts, but has warned that "time is running out" for the hostages as the Palestinian militant group's war with Israel nears its 12th week.
According to an official Israeli tally, 129 people are still being held in Gaza, after more than 100 were repatriated in a November truce or recovered during a military offensive. Twenty-two have been confirmed dead, the Israeli government has said, with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) admitting it mistakenly killed three hostages during an operation.
About 1,200 people were killed in the initial Hamas attack, according to Israeli tallies, including several Canadians. In its latest update on casualties, Gaza's health ministry said 20,057 Palestinians had been killed and 53,320 wounded in Israeli strikes since Oct. 7.
During the Nov. 24-Dec. 1 humanitarian pause, 240 Palestinians were freed from Israeli jails.
In a statement on Thursday that dampened hopes of a breakthrough for another exchange of detainees, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller group also holding hostages in Gaza, rejected any future deals "except after a full cessation of aggression" by Israel.
Shelling reported near refugee camps
On the ground in Gaza, Israeli forces on Friday signalled they were widening their ground offensive with a new push, ordering residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately.
Residents reported Israeli tank shelling of eastern areas of Al-Bureij, the subject of the latest military evacuation order.
Israeli forces have previously engaged with Hamas gunmen on the edges of Al-Bureij but have yet to thrust deeper into the built-up area, which grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency reported heavy shelling and airstrikes on Jabalia al-Balad and Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, and that Israeli vehicles were trying to advance from the western side of Jabalia amid the sound of gunfire.
Airsrikes were also reported in Khan Younis and Rafah, in the south.
"After more than two months of the war, Israel's indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have turned the north of the Strip into a pile of rubble," medical charity MSF said in a post on X. "In Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, south Gaza, the dead and wounded continue to arrive almost every day … Nowhere is safe."
Reports in Palestinian media and footage shared by Gazans on social media showed bodies scattered in the street and some buried under rubble around the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said in a statement its air force destroyed a long-range missile launch site in Juhor ad-Dik, central Gaza, from which, it said, "recent launches into Israeli territory were carried out" — a possible reference to an attack on Tel Aviv on Thursday.
In New York, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution — with the U.S. and Russia abstaining — which "calls for urgent steps to immediately allow safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access and to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities."
The initial draft had called for "an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" to allow aid access. Before the vote, Israel said 5,405 aid trucks — carrying food, water and medical supplies — have entered Gaza since the start of the war. But aid groups say only a fraction of what is needed is coming in; a report by a UN-backed body said on Thursday the risk of famine is growing every day.
Regional tensions high
The Israeli military has expressed regret for civilian deaths but blamed Iran-backed Hamas for operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as human shields, an allegation the militant group denies.
Israel says 140 of its soldiers have been killed since it launched its ground incursion into Gaza on Oct. 20.
The IDF angrily denied a published report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights earlier this week alleging that its troops committed war crimes that left 11 unarmed Palestinians dead on Dec. 19 in Gaza City. The IDF said that it "has no record of any operation, nor incident, in the Al-Remal neighbourhood in Gaza City that would support any of the allegations put forward by OHCHR."
The war in Gaza has fuelled tensions at other regional faultlines.
Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah have repeatedly traded fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon, and Houthi militants of Yemen, also Iran-backed, have attacked ships in the lower Red Sea, increasing the risks of trade disruption.
Violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas rivals Fatah, has limited self-rule.
Corrections
- A previous version of this story said Gadi Haggai was among some 240 people taken hostage during the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas in southern Israel. His kibbutz has since said that he was killed in his community that day and his body was taken to Gaza.Dec 22, 2023 2:07 PM ET
With files from Reuters and CBC News