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2 Israeli-Americans missing since Oct. 7 confirmed killed in Hamas attack
(JTA) — Two Israeli-Americans missing since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel have been confirmed killed, their kibbutz announced.
Judith Weinstein, 70, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was fatally wounded during the terrorist invasion of southern Israel, Nir Oz said on Thursday. The statement confirmed her death, but did not say if she had died the same day.
Last week, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a volunteer group that represents Israelis held captive by Hamas, said Weinstein’s husband, Gadi Haggai, 72, had been killed.
Their bodies are being held in Gaza. Before the news of their deaths, their family had hoped they were still alive while in captivity.
The kibbutz and hostage advocacy group did not provide information on how the couple’s deaths had been determined. Their deaths were confirmed by Israel’s Government Press Office, an official government body that coordinates between the Israeli government and media.
On the morning of Oct. 7, Weinstein and Haggai left Nir Oz to take their routine morning walk through the fields and orchards around the kibbutz. Security camera footage showed the pair walking out of a kibbutz gate shortly after 6 a.m. The attack started around an hour later.
During the Hamas attack, Weinstein sent a message to friends saying that she and Haggai had been wounded by gunfire, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. Weinstein also called the Magen David Adom emergency response corps after the couple had been wounded.
“They came on the road,” Weinstein, referring to the terrorists, said during the call, according to Israel’s Channel 12 news. “There were a lot of motorcyclists with live weapons and they shot us. We lied down and they shot me in the face and hand.”
Weinstein (referred to as “Judih” in some reports) was born in Goshen, New York and moved with her family to Toronto when she was 3. She also held Canadian citizenship, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Weinstein was an English teacher for special needs students at the Nofei Habsor high school in the neighboring community of Magen. She also taught children to cope with anxiety caused by the conflict through meditation and mindfulness, said the Eshkol Regional Council, the local governing authority.
Haggai, whose mother was born and raised in Manhattan and whose father is from Detroit, was a flute player and composer who performed in a military band during his Israel Defense Forces service. He worked as Nir Oz’s dining hall chef. The couple met shortly after Haggai’s release from the military while Weinstein was volunteering on Kibbutz Ein Hashofet, Haggai’s hometown, Nir Oz said.
The pair performed together around Israel in a music ensemble called Jazz Alliance, the kibbutz said, describing them as a dedicated couple who “couldn’t be more perfect for each other.”
The couple had four children and seven grandchildren.
The couple’s daughter, Iris Haggai Liniado, mourned her parents in a Facebook post on Thursday. She described her frantic search for her parents’ whereabouts after the attack, but said she had suspected her mother had been killed because Weinstein was an elderly woman who was not released with other hostages in an exchange deal last month. Liniado said she realized her mother had been killed when she was informed that Haggai was dead.
“There isn’t a second of the day that I’m not in Oct. 7,” she wrote. “I need to process that I don’t have a mother and a father anymore. That I won’t hear your voices anymore.”
“What an inspiration you were together. You completed each other,” she wrote, adding that news of their deaths had at least brought the family some closure.
Liniado criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he had not spoken to her, while President Joe Biden had spoken with her twice.
Biden mourned Weinstein’s death in a Thursday statement, saying, “This tragic development cuts deep.”
“I will never forget what their daughter, and the family members of other Americans held hostage in Gaza, have shared with me,” Biden said. “They have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal.”
Biden said in a statement last week that he was “heartbroken” by news of Haggai’s death.
Israeli authorities believe 129 hostages remain in Gaza, not all of whom are alive. Last month, 105 captives were released from Gaza during a brief truce. Four other hostages were released before the truce, and one was rescued by Israeli forces.
Nir Oz was one of the hardest-hit communities in the Hamas attack, with around 80 of its 400 residents taken hostage and 25 killed during the attack.
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The post 2 Israeli-Americans missing since Oct. 7 confirmed killed in Hamas attack appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.