Vivian Silver has been missing since the Hamas attack on October 7th. The death of this 74-year-old Israeli-Canadian peace activist has been confirmed, an Israeli diplomat said in Toronto on Monday. “Tragic news: Vivian Silver, the Canadian-Israeli peace activist previously held hostage, has been confirmed dead, murdered by Hamas at Kibbutz Beeri,” Israeli Consul General Idit Shamir announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

“Canada mourns its loss,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also wrote on

“They are in the house”

Vivian Silver’s son, Yonatan Zeigen, 35, who lives in Tel Aviv, said a few days after the attack that he had spoken to her on the phone during the attack on the kibbutz. On Saturday 7 October at around 11am (8am GMT) “we were in touch by phone and she wrote to me: They are in the house “, he told AFP. “Nothing since then.”

“She fights for justice, she is a fantastic mother and grandmother,” he added. Vivian Silver had set up aid programs for Gazans and helped them get treatment in Israel.

She had won numerous awards for her commitment to peace and in 2014 helped found an Israeli feminist and pacifist movement, Women Wage Peace, which has more than 45,000 members.

According to the latest information from Israeli authorities, about 240 people were kidnapped and taken hostage to Gaza during the Hamas offensive, leaving about 1,200 people dead, most of them Israeli civilians. According to an unverifiable report by the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli bombings of Gaza killed 11,240 people, mostly civilians, including 4,630 children.