Avi Fleisher, 63: Kibbutz defender was ‘man of actions, not words’
Killed battling the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Magen on October 7
Avraham “Avi” Fleisher, 63, from Kibbutz Magen, was killed on October 7 defending the kibbutz from a Hamas invasion.
Avi was home with his family that morning in the kibbutz, which is near Kibbutz Nir Oz, when the attack began. Avi and the rest of the local security officers were told to get equipped and head out to a central meeting point.
A group of dozens of Hamas gunmen on motorcycles arrived at the kibbutz gates and blew it open, invading the small community. Inside, they battled the outmanned and outgunned local security for several hours. Avi was shot and seriously wounded in the battle around 100 feet from his home. Many hours later, when the army arrived, he was flown to a hospital where he was declared dead.
A member of the kibbutz’s local security team, he was posthumously recognized as a fallen soldier with the rank of chief warrant officer in the reserves. His fellow local security officer, Ofir Yaron, was also killed that day while trying to return to the kibbutz and join the defense. Two other local security officers were wounded, and everyone else in the kibbutz was saved.
Avi’s funeral was held on October 15 in Beersheba and he was buried in Magen. He is survived by his wife, Varda, their three children, Peleg, Ella and Hagai, his mother, Latifah and his three siblings, Haviva, Rachel and Yoram.
Born in Ashkelon, he grew up an active member of the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed Zionist youth group. During his mandatory military service, Avi served in the Nahal Brigade. After being released, he settled in Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh, not far from Yeruham. There he met Varda, and the couple wed and settled in Magen, where she was raised.
Avi studied agronomy at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Rehovot, working in the kibbutz and in later years as a teacher at the local school. More recently, he studied civil engineering and worked in construction. He danced in the “Aya Eshkol” dance troupe alongside Louis Har, who was kidnapped on October 7 and later rescued by IDF troops.
His niece, Michal Shechter, described Avi on Facebook as “the kibbutznik of the family, a dear and beloved man.”
“A quiet man, funny, who always exuded calm and chill,” she added. “I always admired his actions and the path he built for himself… A man of manual labor, who built Grandma Latifah a copy of the sukkah that her family had in Iraq, who raised chickens when he was still a boy and went on to be an agronomist in the kibbutz — all with joy, generosity, faith in the journey and love.”
Avi, she wrote, “was a man of actions and not words, and left us that legacy — to act without fear, to take care of our loved ones, calmly and peacefully, until we are called to fight.”
His cousin, Ilan Ron, said Avi was “modest and moral, with a smile that never left his face.”
Just two weeks before he was killed, he said, “We had a cousins’ meetup that was arranged quickly and spontaneously, with warm, happy, loving vibes — which in hindsight was a farewell gathering from Avi.”
