Adi Ohana, 43: Film buff who worked for electric company

Adi Ohana, 43, from Mavki’im, was accidentally killed by friendly fire in southern Israel on October 7.

Adi, an employee of the Israel Electric Corporation, had been at work that Saturday morning at the Rutenberg Power Station in Ashkelon. Around 9 p.m. that evening, he set out to return home, delayed by many hours due to the Hamas onslaught and safety fears.

He approached a junction outside Ashkelon, where a group of Border Police officers motioned for him to stop. Adi didn’t realize the officers were Israeli forces, and was afraid that they were Hamas terrorists.

He turned his car around and began to flee, and the Border Police officers, believing he was a terrorist, opened fire on the vehicle, shooting him dead in a volley of bullets.

Adi was buried in Ashkelon. He is survived by his daughter, Yuval, 9, his parents, Silvia and Jojo, and his siblings Gad, Smadar, Uri, Avi and Tammy.

The youngest of six, Adi was born and raised in Ashkelon to Moroccan immigrants, according to a state obituary. He was a talented basketball player and competed with a local team, and his friends called him “the gentle giant.”

In addition to basketball, Adi loved bike riding, movies and spending time at the beach, according to an obituary from his school.

Upon graduating high school, he enlisted in the IDF and served at the Hatzerim Airbase outside Beersheba.

Prior to his IDF service, he played on the Elitzur Ashkelon youth basketball team, later working as a coach and manager.

He studied mechatronics at the ORT College in Rehovot and got a job at Intel. In 2020, he began working at the Israel Electric Corporation’s Rutenberg Power Station in Ashkelon.

Adi was a devoted father to his 9-year-old daughter, Yuval, his family said, always making her his number one priority. On her birthday, a week before he was killed, Adi wrote on Facebook, thanking her “for the privilege of being your dad, for every minute and second we have together. Thank you for filling up my heart and for the light and joy you spread in my life.”

His most central hobby was his love of film, and Adi was one of the admins for a popular Facebook group titled “The Seventh Art,” which discussed movies and television.

Adi’s sister, Tammy, told a local news site that “he was at his peak, he loved his work; anytime we told him that he worked too much, he would say that he loved his job and he enjoyed himself.”

He loved his daughter “with all his soul,” she added. “Every time they were together, he would take her to fun activities — camping, trips, museums, nature, movies – he devoted everything to her.”

Tammy said that so many people came to visit during the shiva mourning period, “and spoke about Adi and what a modest person he was. He loved to give in secret, loved to help people.”

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