More than 600 days after Gad and Judi Haggai were murdered by Palestinian terrorists during their morning walk on Oct. 7, 2023, and their bodies snatched to be used as a bargaining chip, Israel Defence Force soldiers recovered the couple’s remains during an overnight operation in Khan Younis. Israeli media reported that the successful operation was based on precise intelligence obtained from a Palestinian terror suspect arrested in Gaza.
Gad, 72, and Judi, 70, lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities devastated by the attacks of Oct. 7. He was a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, while she was an Israeli, Canadian and American. The New York-born Judi taught English to children with special needs in Nir Oz. The couple had four children.
“My beautiful parents have been freed,” their daughter, Iris Haggai Liniado, wrote on social media. “We have certainty.” She thanked Israeli and U.S. authorities for their help, and noted that “two women are still held by monsters in Gaza.”
The Haggais were killed early on in the fighting. After Oct. 7, Israel’s emergency services released a call Judi made to them in her last moments, detailing how she and Gad had been attacked and responding to the dispatcher that she was trying to hold on. Their bodies were kidnapped and held for the past 20 months by the Mujahideen Brigades, a Hamas-affiliated Palestinian terror group in Gaza that was also behind the abduction and murder of the Bibas family, who likewise lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Currently, 56 hostages remain in Gaza—36 of them feared deceased. About 20 are thought to still be alive after months of torture and abuse.
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