Hanna Katzir, who endured nearly two months of Hamas captivity in Gaza, has died at 78, her hometown of Kibbutz Nir Oz announces.
Katzir was kidnapped from her home in the kibbutz on October 7, 2023. She was released on the first day of a weeklong truce in November 2023, but her family reported soon after that she had returned in extremely poor health and needed to be hospitalized for heart issues.
“Mom was a loving woman, wife and mother who gave nothing but love,” her daughter Carmit Palty Katzir says in a message sent out by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. “Her heart could not withstand the terrible suffering since October 7.”
People cheer as a vehicle carrying hostages released by Hamas drives towards Hatzerim army base in Ofakim, southern Israel, on November 26, 2023, after they were released from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
Katzir’s husband Rami, 79, was killed during the attack and her son Elad was taken hostage. According to the IDF, Elad was likely killed by his captors in January. His body was recovered in April.
Katzir is scheduled to be buried in the Kibbutz Nir Oz cemetery later today.
Palty Katzir notes that those still in captivity are also in extreme danger, urging leaders to reach a deal with Hamas to free them.
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