The bodies of hostages Judith Weinstein Haggai and her husband, Gadi Haggai, were retrieved by the IDF early Thursday in a special forces operation aided by intelligence from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF, the IDF said.
The Mujahideen Brigades kidnapped and held their bodies in Gaza after they were murdered during the October 7 massacre in Kibbutz Nir Oz. They were pronounced dead in December 2023.
Forces from IDF Southern Command carried out the rescue operation. The information that allowed their retrieval into Israeli territory was learned during an interrogation of a captured terrorist, the IDF said.
After an identification process at the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, the Israel Police and the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Hostage and Missing Persons Team notified the family and the Nir Oz community.
Weinstein Haggai, 70, and Haggai, 72, both had US citizenship. Weinstein Haggai also had Canadian citizenship. They left behind four children and seven grandchildren.
Weinstein Haggai was an English teacher, specializing in children with special needs. She worked with children suffering from anxiety by using meditation and mindfulness methods. She was a poet and an entrepreneur who was dedicated to working for peace and brotherhood, the kibbutz said.
Gadi Haggai was “a sharp person, a gifted musician from the age of three, a chef, and a follower of a healthy vegan diet,” the kibbutz said.
Nir Oz welcomes closure of receiving bodies of hostages
In a statement issued by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the Weinstein Haggai family said: “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 Saturday morning and never came back.”
The family members thanked the IDF and security forces who carried out the complex rescue operation, the kibbutz said. 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,” they said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said 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.”
“A grave is not a privilege,” the forum said. “A grave is a basic human right, without which personal and national recovery is impossible.”