Canadian aid worker and peace activist Vivian Silver was killed during a Hamas attack on October 7. It was previously believed that the 74-year-old woman was still being held hostage by the Islamist movement.
This was confirmed on Monday by the Consul General of Israel in Toronto, Idit Shamir, on social networks, speaking of tragic news.
“Our thoughts are with his family and friends. May his memory be a blessing,” wrote Mme Shamir. Women Wage Peace, an organization with which Mme Silver worked and who calls for an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, also confirmed his death shortly after.
Earlier on Monday, CBC first reported that Vivian Silver’s son, Yonatan Ziegen, said the 74-year-old’s remains were found on the kibbutz where she lived, but ‘they had only now been identified.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Yonatan Ziegen, son of Vivian Silver, in Tel Aviv
“She always believed that people were all the same, despite politics and ideologies,” explains Mr. Ziegen, quoted by the media.
Last month, in mid-October, while he still hoped that his mother was alive, Yonatan Ziegen spoke to the columnist of The Press, Isabelle Hachey. According to his account, Mme Silver had not given any sign of life since Hamas entered the kibbutz.
“She was driving Palestinian patients from Gaza to Israeli hospitals. She dedicated her life to peace, justice and gender equality,” said Mr. Ziegen, recalling that two weeks earlier, again, she had organized an international event for peace on Kibbutz Be’. eri.
Just before her disappearance, Vivian Silver herself repeated on Facebook that “only a negotiated agreement” could “put an end to this horrible and senseless violence”.