Elderly Winnipeg Peace Activist Taken Hostage by Hamas in Israel: Former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler

People react near a fire after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)

A Canadian citizen and peace activist from Winnipeg living in Israel has been taken hostage by Hamas, according to former Canadian cabinet minister Irwin Cotler.

Mr. Cotler, McGill law professor emeritus and a former minister of justice and attorney general, said on Oct. 8 that Vivian Silver “was violently taken from her home in Kibbutz Be'eri in Israel“ and ”is now being held captive by Hamas in Gaza,” calling her captivity “yet another heinous Hamas war crime.”

Ms. Silver “is a renowned Canadian-Israeli peace activist and humanitarian from Winnipeg” who has been “focused on peacebuilding and helping women and children,” wrote Mr. Cotler on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“All Canadians and people of conscience around the world should be calling for her release and condemning Hamas criminality. Thinking of her family,” the former cabinet minister said.

U.S. independent weekly Jewish Press reported late on Oct. 8 that 50 hostages being held in the dining room of Kibbutz Be’eri had been rescued safely by Israeli forces and that the terrorists who had been holding them captive were dead, citing overnight reporting by Hebrew-language media. The status of Ms. Silver is unclear, however.

Ms. Silver is reportedly 74 years old, and a biography about her from the group Women Wage Peace says she has two sons and two grandsons. She spent a year studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1968 and decided to make Israel her home, undertaking various peace-related advocacy projects.

In the biography published in August 2018, Ms. Silver said she had been a kibbutz member for almost 45 years and spent the last 28 years on Kibbutz Beeri, also spelled Be'eri, located in southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians transport a captured Israeli civilian (C) from Kibbutz Kfar Azza into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

Israel was attacked by the terrorist organization Hamas in the early hours of Oct. 7. The attacks involved air strikes followed by terrorists shooting civilians on the ground in Israeli cities near the Gaza Strip.

The terrorist group has taken both Israeli soldiers and civilians as hostages, including women and children, says the Israel Defense Forces.

Hostages

Israeli military officers have indicated that Hamas militants will potentially attempt to negotiate the release of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages. Residents living near areas bordering the Gaza Strip were warned that gunmen were going door to door taking captives.

The area where Ms. Silver lived, Kibbutz Be'eri, just under three miles southeast from the border with Gaza in southern Israel, is where video obtained by The New York Times (NYT) showed several people being taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.

In the footage, at least five people with their hands behind their backs are being led on a road by armed men on foot and on motorcycles, according to the NYT in an article on Oct. 7.

The NYT said that where the group ended up is unclear but that Israel news outlets suggested that up to 50 hostages were being held in a dining room in Kibbutz Be'eri.

Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas, claimed in a statement that the terrorist group had hidden “dozens of hostages” in “safe places and the tunnels of the resistance,” the NYT article said.

Reports suggested that Hamas soldiers even took an elderly Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair as a captive into Gaza.