What we know about the Canadians killed in Hamas attack on Israel
Several Canadians confirmed killed in Oct. 7 assault that sparked Israel-Hamas war
The Israeli government estimates Hamas killed about 1,200 people in raids and rocket attacks on Israel, including several Canadians.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip — since Israel declared war on Hamas and its military began carrying out retaliatory bombardments and launched a ground invasion in the territory — has climbed above 21,000, as of Dec. 28, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Here is what CBC News has learned about the Canadians confirmed to have been killed in the initial Hamas attack.
Vivian Silver
More than five weeks after the Hamas-led attacks, the family of Vivian Silver confirmed that the 74-year-old was killed in Kibbutz Be'eir, where she resided.
Her family believed militants may have been holding her hostage in Gaza, but one of her sons, Yonatan Zeigen, told CBC News on Nov. 13 that the family learned her remains had been recovered "early on" following the Oct. 7 attack but had only now been identified.
Silver, who was originally from Winnipeg, dedicated her life to peace work and was involved in movements aimed at building bonds between Palestinian and Israeli women with the goal of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"She came to Israel 50 years ago and just after the [Yom Kippur War], which is kind of ironic, and since then, she was just involved in activities to end the occupation and to solve the conflict," Zeigen told CBC News in October.
Silver had been an active member in a variety of humanitarian groups. She was a founding member of a movement called Women Wage Peace, which advocates for an end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for women to be involved in the peace process.
Netta Epstein
Netta Epstein died showing "extraordinary heroism," saving his girlfriend by jumping on a grenade tossed into the safe room where they were hiding, the Israeli consulate in Toronto said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Their future dreams, including marriage, were abruptly and tragically cut short," the consulate said, confirming to CBC News it was acting on behalf of the 21-year-old's family in announcing his death.
Shir Georgy
The family of Canadian Israeli Shir Georgy confirmed that the 22-year-old was one of the 260 people killed in Hamas's attack on the Supernova music festival, held on a kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border, on Oct. 7.
"It is with great sadness and a broken heart that we announce the murder of our beloved Shir," Georgy's aunt, Michal Bouganim, said in an Instagram post.
Adi Vital-Kaploun
The Jewish Federation of Ottawa said Israeli Canadian Adi Vital-Kaploun was a victim of the Hamas attack.
Andrea Freedman, the organization's president and CEO, read a statement from Vital-Kaploun's family at a news conference on Oct. 11.
"Our family lost a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a cousin," Freedman said. "Her children are miraculously home and safe."
"She was murdered by terrorists in her home, just for being Jewish," Freedman said, noting that family members requested she not provide details about the circumstances of how the 33-year-old was killed.
Vital-Kaploun grew up in Israel but maintained ties to Ottawa's Jewish community. She still had a large family in the city, according to Rabbi Idan Scher with Congregation Machzikei Hadas.
Scher said she attended summer camp with her many cousins and friends in Ottawa. He would not comment further on what he described as a "painful death."
Ben Mizrachi
Vancouver's Ben Mizrachi was killed while attending the Supernova music festival in southern Israel.
Local Liberal MP Taleeb Noormohamed broke the news of Mizrachi's death in a social media post on behalf of the family, which lives in Noormohamed's riding, describing the 22-year-old as a "wonderful young man."
According to a Facebook post from King David High School, which Mizrachi attended until he graduated in 2018, he had served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, a neighbour of Mizrachi's parents, told CBC Radio's As It Happens that the family was informed he used his training as a medic with the IDF to tend to wounded people at the music festival before he died.
Infeld said the Mizrachi family left quickly for Israel to help search for their son when he was considered missing, but "unfortunately, they ended up being there for the funeral."
Alexandre Look
Montreal's Alexandre Look was at the same festival as Mizrachi. His mother, Raquel Ohnona Look, told CBC News that she was on a video call with her 33-year-old son during the Hamas ambush and could hear gunshots and chants in Arabic in the background.
"I said, 'They're killing my son as we speak,'" she told CBC News.
The family would later learn that Look was trying to protect others from bullets inside a bunker, where he and other concertgoers had taken shelter during rocket fire prior to the attack, when militants shot him to death.
"He was our shield. I swear to you, he was our shield. If it wasn't for him, all 30 of us in there would be dead," a survivor told Look's parents in a video recording.
Look's family is remembering him for his courage and his "huge heart."
"He was larger than life and he was always the life of the party, even if there wasn't a party," Ohnona Look said.
Tiferet Lapidot
Tiferet Lapidot, 23, was also at the music festival near the Re'im kibbutz when the attack began. Global Affairs Canada confirmed on Oct. 17 that she is among the Canadians killed.
Lapidot's cousin, Oran Zlotnik, who lives in Montreal, said Lapidot phoned her mother during the militants' assault, whispering that she was hiding in a bush as gunmen fired on the crowd — until the phone disconnected.
After her family could no longer reach her, he said, they tried to track her phone and it appeared to be located in Gaza.
Lapidot's family is originally from Saskatchewan but has lived in Israel for the past 20 years, Zlotnik said.
Judih Weinstein
After months of uncertainty about her fate, Israeli authorities said on Dec. 28 that Canadian Israeli Judih Weinstein was killed during the initial Hamas attack. Her family had held out hope that she was being held hostage.
The Nir Oz Kibbutz, where she lived, said Weinstein was fatally wounded on Oct. 7, along with her husband, Gad Haggai, whose death had been confirmed last week. The couple had been on a typical early-morning walk.
The 70-year-old mother of four grew up in Canada and held Canadian and U.S. citizenship. She was born in New York state but moved to Toronto at the age of three, and then moved to Israel 20 years later to live with Haggai.
"Judy dedicated her life to serving others, spending years teaching English and using her passions for poetry, puppeteering, and mindfulness to empower children of all backgrounds," her family said in a statement. "She will be remembered for her compassion, her peaceful nature, and the creative life she built with her husband."
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With files from Adrienne Arsenault, Chad Pawson, Isaac Olson, Elizabeth Thompson, Justin Hayward