OAN Staff James Meyers
11:30 AM – Thursday, June 5, 2025
The bodies of an elderly U.S.-Israeli couple, who were abducted by the Islamist terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, have been recovered more than a year after they were initially reported to have been killed while in captivity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the remains of Judi Weinstein, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 73, were discovered and recovered during a “special operation” carried out by various Israeli authorities, including internal security agency Shin Bet and Israel’s defense forces (IDF) 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 applauded the brave “fighters and commanders” for their “successful execution” in bringing the bodies back home. Israel’s leader also vowed that the Jewish State will “not rest or be silent until we bring all our captives home — the living and the dead alike.”
Meanwhile, the couple’s families told the press that the return of their bodies is both “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,” both families said in a statement.
The families continued to call on the country’s “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.”
The elderly couple were among the 251 individuals taken hostage during the coordinated attack launched by Hamas terrorists against the State of Israel on October 7th.
The tragedy unfolded as the pair were taking an early morning stroll near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, located approximately four miles from the Gaza border. Without warning, Hamas operatives on motorcycles ambushed and forcibly abducted them.
Just before the couple were taken hostage, Weinstein was able to call one of the kibbutz members for aid, stating that she had been shot in the arm and wounded in the face. Her husband was shot in the head.
Soon after, Weinstein sent a text to her daughter, who was in Singapore at the time, to let her know what was unraveling back home in Israel.
“Paramedics tried to send her an ambulance. The ambulance got hit by a rocket,” the paramedic told the Times of Israel.
Weinstein eventually died from her injuries that same day. Her body and her husband’s body were then taken to Gaza by Hamas.
After at least a month, Kibbutz Nir Oz revealed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had informed Haggai’s family that he had been killed. Then, in December 2023, Officials confirmed both their deaths. Nonetheless, their bodies remained with Hamas until Thursday this week.
According to the New York Post, the couple’s niece, Ofri Haggai, told the outlet in 2023 that her 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 deceased elderly couple met in the 1970’s while both were volunteering, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum.
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