As Israel endured a difficult weekend at home, its athletes won several Paralympic medals, bringing Paris total to 7

(JTA) — As Israeli Paralympic rower Shahar Milfelder won her first career medal on Sunday, she was thinking about the families of the six newly confirmed dead hostages.

“We had in mind to give pride to the country,” Milfelder said, according to the Israeli news site Mako. “I cried in the morning from the hard news and now I cry from the good news and send the biggest hug I can to the families of the abducted and to all the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Milfelder and her rowing partner, Saleh Shahin, took bronze in the PR2 mixed double sculls. Milfelder, 26, a native of Moshav Beit Yitzchak...