By Richard Pollina | New York Post
The bodies of two elderly US-Israeli hostages who had deep ties to New York and were abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack have been recovered over a year after they were confirmed to be killed in captivity.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the remains of Judi Weinstein, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 73, were recovered during a “special operation” conducted by Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, and the IDF troops in the Gaza Strip
“Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed,” Netanyahu announced on X Thursday.
“The heart grieves for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed.”
Netanyahu thanked the “fighters and commanders” for the “successful execution” of bringing their bodies home — and vowed to “not rest or be silent until we bring all our captives home – the living and the dead alike.”
The couple’s families said their return is “painful and heartbreaking, yet it also brings healing to our uncertainty.”
“Their return 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,” the Weinstein and Haggai families said in a statement through The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.
The families pleaded with “decision-makers” to do “everything necessary to reach an agreement that will return all 56 remaining hostages—the living for rehabilitation and the murdered 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,” they wrote.
“We want to emphasize today — a grave is not a privilege. A grave is a basic human right, without which personal and national recovery is impossible.”
Weinstein and Haggai were among the 251 hostages abducted when Hamas terrorists launched a coordinated attack into Israel on Oct. 7.
The couple were taking an early morning walk near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, about 4 miles from the Gaza border, when armed Hamas terrorists on motorcycles ambushed them.
Shortly before the couple was taken hostage, Weinstein managed to call one of the kibbutz members for help, saying she had been shot in the arm and was wounded in the face, and Haggai had been shot in the head.
Weinstein — a retired English teacher who worked with special needs children — then sent a text to her daughter in Singapore to inform her of what was happening at home.
A paramedic also later shared that the mother of four had called for medical help, but they lost contact with her during the chaos.
“Paramedics tried to send her an ambulance. The ambulance got hit by a rocket,” the paramedic told the Times of Israel.
Weinstein died that day from her injuries.
Her body and Haggai, a retired chef and jazz musician, were taken into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
More than a month after the attack, Kibbutz Nir Oz shared that the Israeli Defense Forces informed Haggai’s family that he had been murdered.
Officials confirmed both their deaths just days apart in December 2023. Their bodies remained in the hands of their captors in the Palestinian territory until Thursday.
Haggai, whose mother was born and raised in Manhattan and whose father is from Detroit, and Weinstein, a native of Goshen in upstate New York, moved to Israel 30 years ago, seeking solace in the Jewish state — until Hamas’ surprise terror attack shattered their peaceful lives and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
The couple’s niece, Ofri Haggai, told The Post in 2023 — before they were both confirmed dead — that her elderly aunt and uncle “are not part of any conflict.”
“They are not part of any war. Not the elderly, not the babies, not the mothers, not the young people. They all need to be brought home.”
The couple met in the 1970s while volunteering in Israel, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.
Weinstein is remembered as a peaceful person who adored writing poetry and had a “passion for meditation and mindfulness and being an educator used it to help children with special needs and attention difficulties in her community,” The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum said.
Haggai “was a man full of humor who knew how to make those around him laugh.”
“A musician at heart, a gifted flutist, he played in the IDF Orchestra and was involved with music his whole life,” the organization said.
The couple is survived by two sons, two daughters, and seven grandchildren.
With Post wires