Hamas murdered U.S. citizen Gad Haggai, who was abducted during the October 7 terror attack, according to a press statement by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the community where he lived with his wife, Judy Weinstein, an American who remains a hostage in Gaza.
Haggai held dual citizenship in Israel and the U.S., as does Weinstein. He was thought to be a hostage, but was confirmed as having died after being wounded and abducted.
Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a press statement Friday:
With great sorrow Kibbutz Nir Oz announces the murder of Gad Haggai during the October 7th attack. Gad was 73 years old, and was a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz. A father of four, grandfather of 7.
Gad was a sharp man, a gifted wind instrument musician since he was three years old.
Gad was a man of the land, a chef, and followed a healthy and active lifestyle, and a vegan diet. He was an Israeli-American dual national.
He was abducted with his 70 year old wife, Judy Weinstein, who was also wounded during the massacre, and is still held hostage.
…
May his memory be a blessing.
Update: The kibbutz later clarified that Haggai had been murdered during the attack, but that Hamas had taken his body away.
The community of Kibbutz Nir Oz was one of the hardest hit by the Hamas terror attack of October 7.
Though over 100 hostages were released during a week-long truce last month, which Hamas ultimately broke, the terror organization says it will no longer negotiate for the release of the remaining 127 hostages until Israel ends the war, which Israel will not do.
Hamas was still thought to be holding eight American hostages; that number is now seven.
On Friday, the Israeli military reported progress on a variety of fronts — eliminating terrorists, seizing weapons, and even discovering a report that documented Hamas spending one million dollars on producing doors for underground tunnels in 2022 in the area of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Troops from the Nahal Brigade battled Hamas terrorists dressed in civilian clothing who took up a position in a civilian apartment building; after the battle, they found bodycam footage of the terrorists setting up an improvised explosive device (IED) as part of an effort to lay booby traps for advancing Israeli troops.
Hamas continued to fire rockets at Israel from the central Gaza Strip, the last area that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not entered in significant numbers.
That is about to change: the IDF warned residents of Bureij, in central Gaza, to evacuate Friday.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.