The IDF announced on Thursday that the body of Yehudit Weiss, who was abducted by the Hamas terrorist organization, was extracted by IDF troops from a structure adjacent to the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip and was transferred to Israeli territory.
Yehudit, 65, was one of about 240 people who were kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization on October 7 and had been held in Gaza ever since. She had been undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer prior to her abduction.
In the structure in which Yehudit was located, military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles and RPGs, were also found.
Following an identification process that was conducted by military medical and rabbinate personnel, together with the Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police, IDF and Israel Police representatives informed the family of Yehudit Weiss, who was abducted from her home in Be'eri on October 7th by the Hamas terrorist organization, that she has been declared dead.
"The IDF sends its heartfelt condolences to the family," the IDF stated.
"The national task before our eyes is to locate the missing and return the abducted persons home. The IDF is operating alongside and in full coordination with the relevant national and security institutions in order to pursue these tasks. We will not cease from the mission until it will be completed," it added.
Yehudit's family reacted to the news of their mother's murder by calling on the Israeli government to bring the hostages who are still alive home.
“It’s important for us to say that we fought, we battled in every possible way to bring mom, grandma Yehudit home,” said her daughter. “For us, it is too late, but it is important for us to support all the families of the hostages, and to tell the world, bring them home now, so that for them it is not too late, like it was for us.”
Her son Ohad added that the family "had hope, a lot of hope, that she would come home. We wished, we hoped, and sadly for us, it is too late.”
Yehudit's husband, Shmulik, was shot and murdered by Hamas terrorists in the couple's safe room on the morning of October 7.