Roni Shitrit, 24, from Beit Yitzhak, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Shitrit had arrived at the music festival hours before the Hamas assault began, Hebrew news outlet Ynet reported. She had traveled there with four friends in time to watch the sunrise.
While three of her friends returned home safely, Shitrit was killed alongside her childhood friend Adi Margalit.
Her family told Ynet that the last time they heard from her was at 8:01 a.m. when she sent them a text saying “Be calm.”
Some 72 hours after they lost contact with her, her mother Lilach and stepfather Ilan were informed of her death. Since then, they have fought to receive more details, saying they haven’t been told of the circumstances surrounding her death, as there were no visible gunshot wounds or other injuries when they identified the body.
She is survived by her parents, her biological father Tomer, her step-sisters Shira and Noa, and her half-brothers Dor and Uri.
Shitrit had moved to Tel Aviv just months before October 7 and had been working as a restaurant manager. Prior to that, she worked as an event planner for two years.
“Roni was an amazing girl, loving and filled with joie de vivre,” her mother Lilach told local news outlets after her death. “She loved to live, she set goals and she met them…the loss is indescribable. It’s hell. Whatever I say, it won’t explain the feelings or the huge loss.”
To honor their daughter’s memory, Shitrit’s parents launched a fundraiser to purchase an ambulance for Magen David Adom, Israel’s medical emergency response service.
“We cannot bring Roni back, unfortunately, but we are determined to save the lives of many others,” they wrote in the description of the fundraiser.
In a comment left under the last photos Shitrit shared on Instagram, a friend wrote: “You taught me how simple and easy it is to just be a good person, and it’s not a coincidence that so many people came to [your funeral], to pay their last respects, you were the best of us all.”Source: The Times of Israel