Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver confirmed killed in Hamas raid: diplomat
Her son was on phone to his mother on the day of Hamas attack, when shooting began
OTTAWA: A 74-year-old Israeli-Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver who had been missing since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has been confirmed dead, an Israeli diplomat in Toronto said Monday.
“Tragic news: Vivian Silver, the Canadian-Israeli peace activist previously thought to be taken hostage, has been confirmed dead, murdered by Hamas in Kibbutz Beeri,” Idit Shamir the Israeli Consul General wrote on X.
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“Canada mourns her loss,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly wrote on X, describing Silver as “a proud Israeli-Canadian and lifelong advocate for peace.”
Silver’s son Yonatan Zeigen, who lives in Tel Aviv, last month told AFP he was on the phone to his mother on the day of the Hamas attack, when the shooting began at 11:00 am (0800 GMT).
She then messaged him to say that armed men were in her house in the tiny community of Beeri, which would go on to lose more than 100 residents in the brutal attack.
That was the last he heard from her.
“She is a fighter for justice, and a great mother and grandmother,” Zeigen said at the time.
A feminist activist advocating for peace with the Palestinians, Silver had set up aid programmes for Gaza residents and helped them obtain medical treatment in Israel.
She won numerous prizes for her peace work, and in 2014 she helped found the Women Wage Peace group, a peace movement whose membership has grown to more than 45,000.
Hamas’s assault killed an estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israel’s latest figures.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that Israel’s massive retaliatory campaign has killed 11,240 people, including 4,630 children.