The Israeli-American who thought she was a hostage was killed on October 7, her family says

Judih Weinstein Haggai, a 70-year-old believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, was actually killed during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, her family and Kibbutz Nir Oz said in statements Thursday.

Ms Haggai’s husband, Gadi Haggai, was also listed as a hostage, but the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum announced last week that he too was killed in the attacks.

The forum said the couple was shot during their morning walk through the kibbutz fields, and that Mrs. Haggai had managed to inform friends that they had been injured, and her husband critically.

Ms Haggai was fatally injured and her death has now been confirmed, Kibbutz Nir Oz said on Thursday. The statement did not specify how it learned she had been killed in the attack.

The couple’s bodies are being held by Hamas, according to the kibbutz, their family and the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. The groups said the couple were citizens of both Israel and the United States, and that Mrs. Haggai also had Canadian citizenship.

President Biden said he and Jill Biden, the first lady, held the couple’s “four children, seven grandchildren and other loved ones close to our hearts.”

“I will never forget what their daughter and the relatives of other Americans held hostage in Gaza shared with me,” he said in a statement. “They have been living in hell for weeks.”

Mrs. Haggai would be remembered “for the creative life she built with her husband,” her family said, adding that “their killings are a reminder to leaders everywhere to bring the hostages home now before it’s too late is.’