American Judih Weinstein was killed by Hamas on October 7 when the militant group invaded Israel, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday. It was initially believed that Weinstein had been kidnapped by Hamas.
“I reaffirm the pledge we have made to all the families of those still held hostage: we will not stop working to bring them home,” Biden said in a statement.
Weinstein was 70 years old. Her husband, Gad Haggai, was killed on the same day, Biden said last week. He was 73.
“This tragic development cuts deep, coming on the heels of last week’s news that Judih’s beloved husband, Gad Haggai, is believed to have been killed by Hamas,” Biden said in the statement.
During the October 7 attack, about 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli data. Following the Hamas attack, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 21,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
Of the hostages taken by Hamas, 110 were released during a brief truce in late November and another 23 have been declared dead in absentia, an Israeli government spokesperson said Thursday.
Three of the hostages were accidentally killed by the Israeli military.
Israeli troops killed three Israeli hostages — Yotam Haim, Samar Talalka and Alon Lulu Shamriz — in Gaza on December 15 when they misinterpreted their cries for help as a ploy by Hamas to draw Israeli soldiers into an ambush, the military said.
The Israel military published its report on the incident on Thursday, concluding “that there was no malice in the event, and the soldiers carried out the right action to the best of their understanding of the event at that moment.”
The soldiers involved were not expected to be dismissed or to stand trial over the killings.
The inquiry determined that a soldier opened fire at three figures he misidentified as a threat. Two were killed, and the third fled to a nearby building.
Commanders called on the soldiers to cease fire until the third person could be identified. About 15 minutes later, the battalion commander heard someone in the building shouting “Help” and “They are shooting at me” in Hebrew.
The commander again ordered troops to hold their fire, while telling the figure to “come my way.”
But when the man exited the building, two soldiers shot and killed him. The investigation said they had not heard the commander’s order because of a nearby tank’s noise.
“The IDF failed in its mission to rescue the hostages in this event,” army chief General Herzi Halevi said in a statement. “The entire chain of command feels responsible for this difficult event, regrets this outcome, and shares in the grief of the families of the three hostages.”
Some information in this report came from Reuters.