U.S.-Israeli hostage Gadi Haggai confirmed as dead

Dec. 22 (UPI) -- American-Israeli hostage Gadi Haggai, 73, has been confirmed as dead, his community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, said Friday, according to a victims' advocacy group.

Haggai was taken hostage along with his wife, Judy Weinstein Haggai, on Oct. 7 during the Hamas-led incursion into Gaza that killed more than 1,000 people.

The advocacy group, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, said that on Oct. 7, "he went out with his wife, Judy, for their regular morning walk around the fields and vineyards of the kibbutz," in a Facebook post Friday.

The group did not reveal how Haggai died or a specific date.

According to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, Judy and Gadi both were wounded in the initial attack.

"Judy is still being held hostage by Hamas. Gadi's body is still being held by Hamas in Gaza," the group said in a Facebook post Friday.

"Judy managed to inform her friends that that they had been injured from the gunfire and that Gadi was seriously injured," the Forum said.

According to the Forum, Haggai was a flute player in an Israeli military orchestra.

The Haggais have four children and seven grandchildren.

Friday afternoon, the White House released a statement in which President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were "heartbroken."

"We continue to pray for the well-being and safe return of his wife, Judy," the president said. "Their daughter joined by phone my meeting with the families of hostages last week. Those families bravely shared with me the harrowing ordeal that they have endured over the past months as they await news of their loved ones. It's intolerable."

He closed by reaffirming a pledge to hostages' families to continue working for the release of their loved ones.