Gilad Kfir, 48, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Netiv Ha’asara on October 7.
He is survived by his father, Meir, mother Izabella, stepmother Rita, his two sisters and his fiance, Jinky Bolivar. Their daughter, Zoe, was born on December 13, exactly two months after her father’s funeral.
He was buried on October 13 in Gan Yavne. Jinky, a native of the Philippines who met Gilad while on a work visa, is battling to stay in the country so her daughter can be raised with her Israeli grandparents.
Gilad, who worked as an electrical engineer at Intel largely to finance his love of photography, left his house to photograph the rockets and interceptions on October 7, as he was never able to put his camera away. He took snapshots of Hamas terrorists paragliding across the border, the final photos he took before he was murdered.
“We told him to stay inside, but Gilad is Gilad,” his father, Meir told Ynet. The person who found his body also recovered his camera, giving it to his family who downloaded the images he captured just before his death.
His mother, Izabella, wrote on Facebook that “my dear son was head and shoulders above the rest. The pillar of the family. Helped everyone. Was always in a good mood and had a heart of gold. Now he lives on in my heart.”
His father, Meir, told Ynet that “my only son was exceptional, good hearted and pure like a child, who gave others his all and also all his possessions. He was a free soul,” who traveled to many places around the world.
Kfir’s cousin, Eyal Yoseftal, memorialized him on Facebook, recalling that he “traveled around the world to the wildest nature with first-rate photographers,” and also spent 10 years living in the US before returning to Israel, where he lived with his two beloved cats.
“In some ways you were like a kid, who wasn’t prepared to want something without getting it,” noting that he went to work for Intel “and said ‘I need a job with a lot of money to finance what I want to do.'”
Yoseftal said on the Thursday before he was killed, “you sent videos to Jinky showing how you had cleaned and arranged the whole house to welcome Zoe to the world, you thought of everything!”
His friend Tamar Amit wrote: “To those who did not know Gilad, you lost out. Gilad was one of those people who changes your life the moment you meet him. A true friend, who gives from himself even if you don’t ask. Who will be angry if you don’t take.”
Amit added that while Gilad is now gone, “his cats are here, his beloved girlfriend is here, his baby is almost here. We will watch over everyone for him, because that’s what he would have done for us.”Source: The Times of Israel