Dr. Daniel Levi (Ludmir), a native of Peru and a physician at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while he was trying to treat the wounded in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
He is survived by his wife, Lihi, and their two young children, Emma, 4 and Liam, almost 2. His parents and siblings came from South America to Israel for the funeral, held on October 15.
“I don’t say this out loud, but I need to ask God why — why was this good man murdered?” his brother, Michael Levi, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times at his funeral.
Lihi told the Mako news site that the family went into their bomb shelter when the sirens began ringing in the kibbutz early Saturday morning. Then Daniel was called to the local clinic in the community to help treat the many people wounded in the Hamas onslaught on the kibbutz.
“He gave me a kiss and he left,” she said. “If only I had known that it was our last moment.”
He updated her throughout the day that they were running out of supplies, and they were afraid of the terrorists still roaming the kibbutz. She believes he was later killed when Hamas terrorists threw a grenade into the clinic where he was treating wounded civilians.
“He was the love of my life, we had a deep and strong relationship, a connection that I never thought I would have with anyone,” she said. His death, she said, “is a loss to humanity. I’m not just saying that because I’m his wife… he was a prodigy in his work” as an ear, nose and throat physician. “He was an exceptional person in every field, unimaginably smart, good-hearted, the best friend, always the first to help — even at his own expense.”
Levi’s brother-in-law, Adam Danieli, eulogized him in a lengthy Facebook post, recalling him joining the family “with a smile from ear to ear, blue eyes that look deep into the soul, contagious laughter that infects everyone, a sharp mind and an ability to process data that makes NASA’s computers jealous.”
“Daniel, I will start speaking about you in the past tense because otherwise, people will think I’m completely crazy,” wrote Danieli, “but we both know that your soul is alive and kicking and watching over all the people you loved.”
Prof. Daniel Kaplan, chief of the ENT department at Soroka where Levi worked, said he “immediately won our hearts with his dedication and his quick ability to learn. He also had special people skills. He was a skilled resident, with a lot of knowledge and a strong ambition to learn and advance. He always kept calm and had good energy, I never heard him complain or anyone complain about him.”
Kaplan said that a member of the Be’eri local security force who was treated by Levi in his final hours alive “told me about his bravery in the fact of the terrorists and the care he gave to the wounded. He noted his kind eyes, his calm demeanor that was so like him.”
Lihi said that Levi always knew he would become a doctor, “but at the moment of truth when he ran to save lives, there was nobody to save him.”Source: The Times of Israel