Jerusalem, Dec 28, 2023 Agence France Presse: A US-Israeli woman seized in the October 7 Hamas attack was killed on the same day and her body remains in the Gaza Strip, her kibbutz community said on Thursday.
Judith Weinstein Haggai, 70, had been thought to be the oldest woman among the hostages still held in Gaza by the Palestinian militant group.
Her kibbutz of Nir Oz said that Haggai was “murdered in the massacre,” and that her body remains in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Thursday’s announcement by the community follows confirmation on December 23 that her husband, Gad Haggai, was also killed on October 7.
“The bodies of both are still in the custody of Hamas,” the community said, without elaborating.
The couple were among some 250 people taken hostage from Israeli border communities and military posts.
More than 100 of those abducted have since been freed, many exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel says 129 captives are still missing in Gaza, including 23 believed to have been killed.
Three hostages were mistakenly shot dead by soldiers in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army.
“There are no words to describe the pain of losing our parents and grandparents to the massacre that took place on our kibbutz,” the family of Haggai said in a statement.
“We pray that their bodies... will be soon returned to us, and that their murders are a reminder for leaders everywhere to bring the hostages home now before it is too late.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were “devastated” by the news.
The slain couple’s family has been “living through hell for weeks,” he said, pledging that the United States will “not stop working to bring” remaining hostages home.
Ahl Haggai, the couple’s son, has said that in a final phone call on October 7, his mother had told a paramedic that she and her husband had both been wounded.
“The only evidence we have... is a video of my dad on the back of a truck, laying down injured,” he told AFP earlier this month.
“She’s nowhere to be found,” he said, with only his mother’s glasses recovered from the kibbutz.
Israelis have held frequent rallies to highlight the plight of the remaining hostages and put pressure on the authorities to secure their release, with hundreds marching to parliament on Thursday.
“Bring them home!” they chanted outside the assembly in Jerusalem, an AFP journalist reported.
“All I can hope is that as many people (as possible) will remain alive,” Nikki Littman, 55, who took part in the rally, told AFP.
“I don’t trust the government. I don’t trust Hamas. I fear Hamas. I fear our existence here,” said Littman, who teaches Japanese at a university.
The October 7 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.
Israel’s relentless offensive on Gaza has since killed 21,320 people, mostly civilians, according to the latest toll from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Body of US-Israeli woman held in Gaza: kibbutz
https://arab.news/2hfrx
Body of US-Israeli woman held in Gaza: kibbutz
- Her kibbutz of Nir Oz said that Haggai was “murdered in the massacre,” and that her body remains in the war-torn Palestinian territory
Kurds in Turkiye protest over Syria Aleppo offensive
- Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul
- In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament
DIYARBAKIR, Turkiye: Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkiye’s main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.
Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkiye’s main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.
In the capital, Ankara, DEM lawmakers protested in front of the Turkish parliament, denouncing the targeting of Kurds in Aleppo as a crime against humanity.
The protesters demanded an end to the operation by Syrian government forces against the Kurdish-led SDF force in Aleppo, where at least 21 people have been killed in three days of violent clashes.
It was the worst violence in the northwestern city since Syria’s Islamist authorities took power a year ago. The fighting erupted as both sides struggled to implement a March agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions into the new Syrian state.
In Istanbul, hundreds of protesters waving flags braved heavy rain near Galata Tower to denounce the Aleppo operation under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police, an AFP correspondent said.
But some of the slogans drew a sharp warning from the police, who moved to roughly break up the gathering and arrested some 25 people, DEM’s Istanbul branch said.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the police attack on the Rojava solidarity action in Sishane. This brutal intervention, oppression, and violence against our young comrades is unacceptable!” the party wrote on X, demanding the immediate release of those arrested.
At the Diyarbakir protest during the afternoon, protesters carried a huge portrait of the jailed PKK militant leader Abdullah Ocalan, an AFP video journalist reported.
“We urge states to act as they did for the Palestinian people, for our Kurdish brothers who are suffering oppression and hardship,” Zeki Alacabey, 64, told AFP in Diyarbakir.
Although Turkiye has embarked on a peace process with the PKK, it remains hostile to the SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, seeing it as an extension of the banned militant group and a major threat along its southern border.
It has repeatedly demanded that the SDF merge into the main Syrian military. A defense ministry official said on Thursday that Ankara was ready to “support” Syria’s operation against the Kurdish fighters if needed.
Demonstrators had already taken to the streets in several major Turkish cities with Kurdish majorities on Wednesday, including Diyarbakir and Van, according to images broadcast by the DEM.
