Police Supt. Vadim Blich, 39, fell Saturday during intense firefights in Kibbutz Be’eri, a village that has come to symbolize some of the worst atrocities of the current war.
On Saturday morning, after a massive rocket attack on the kibbutz, dozens of Hamas terrorists entered through the main gate, shot the security guards there, and went from house to house, murdering residents, blowing up the doors of safe rooms to shoot those inside, and setting houses on fire. They kidnapped residents and took them to the Gaza Strip, where their fate is unknown. More than 100 bodies of men, women, and children have since been removed and the kibbutz is said to have been destroyed.
Blich, from the northern city of Haifa, leaves a wife and three children, aged four to 11.
Friends told a Haifa newspaper that Blich was a modest, quiet man, who was always there for others. Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Blich immigrated to Israel at age 5. He completed compulsory military duties in the Border Police, later serving in an undercover unit and then the Police Anti-Corruption Unit.
After a stint as an instructor at the National Police College, he returned to active duty. His last job was as a platoon commander. Blich was buried on Tuesday at Haifa’s military cemetery.Source: The Times of Israel