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
Syrian military tells civilians to evacuate contested area east of Aleppo amid rising tensions
- Syria’s military has announced it will open a “humanitarian corridor” for civilians to evacuate from an area in Aleppo province
- This follows several days of intense clashes between government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
DAMASCUS: Syria’s military said it would open a corridor Thursday for civilians to evacuate an area of Aleppo province that has seen a military buildup following intense clashes between government and Kurdish-led forces in Aleppo city.
The army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive in the towns of Deir Hafer and Maskana and surrounding areas, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of Aleppo city.
The military called on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone.
Syrian government troops have already sent troop reinforcements to the area after accusing the SDF of building up its own forces there, which the SDF denied. There have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides, and the SDF has said that Turkish drones carried out strikes there.
The government has accused the SDF of launching drone strikes in Aleppo city, including one that hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference there.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods. The fighting killed at least 23 people, wounded dozens more, and displaced tens of thousands.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF, which controls large swaths of northeast Syria, over an agreement to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkiye-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main US partner in Syria in fighting against the Daesh group, but Turkiye considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkiye. A peace process is now underway.
Despite the long-running US support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and has pushed the Kurds to implement the integration deal. Washington has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
The SDF in a statement warned of “dangerous repercussions on civilians, infrastructure, and vital facilities” in case of a further escalation and said Damascus bears “full responsibility for this escalation and all ensuing humanitarian and security repercussions in the region.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said in a statement Tuesday that the US is “closely monitoring” the situation and called for “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, avoid actions that could further escalate tensions, and prioritize the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure.” He called on the parties to “return to the negotiating table in good faith.”
Al-Sharaa blasts the SDF
In a televised interview aired Wednesday, Al-Sharaa praised the “courage of the Kurds” and said he would guarantee their rights and wants them to be part of the Syrian army, but he lashed out at the SDF.
He accused the group of not abiding by an agreement reached last year under which their forces were supposed to withdraw from neighborhoods they controlled in Aleppo city and of forcibly preventing civilians from leaving when the army opened a corridor for them to evacuate amid the recent clashes.
Al-Sharaa claimed that the SDF refused attempts by France and the US to mediate a ceasefire and withdrawal of Kurdish forces during the clashes due to an order from the PKK.
The interview was initially intended to air Tuesday on Shams TV, a broadcaster based in Irbil — the seat of northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region — but was canceled for what the station initially said were technical reasons.
Later the station’s manager said that the interview had been spiked out of fear of further inflaming tensions because of the hard line Al-Sharaa took against the SDF.
Syria’s state TV station instead aired clips from the interview on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from the SDF to Al-Sharaa’s comments.
