Dual US citizens were held in Khan Younis by Hamas-allied terror group that also kidnapped, murdered Bibas family; official says Shin Bet grilling of Gazan detainee led IDF to bodies
By Emanuel Fabian, ToI Staff and Lazar Berman
An undated photo of Judih Weinstein and Gadi Haggai (Courtesy)
The Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of slain hostages Gadi Haggai and Judih Weinstein from the southern Gaza Strip in an operation overnight, it was announced Thursday.
The two, a married couple who held US citizenship, were murdered during their morning walk near Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, and their deaths were confirmed by the military in December of that year.
They had been held by the Mujahideen Brigades, a relatively small terror group in the Strip that was also responsible for the abduction and murder of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.
The IDF said the operation was carried out using “precise intelligence” from the IDF’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Intelligence Directorate, and the Shin Bet.
The overnight operation in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis was enabled by intelligence obtained during a Shin Bet interrogation of a Palestinian terror operative who was detained in Gaza, an Israeli defense official told The Times of Israel.