Bilha & Yakov Inon, 75 & 78: Couple were ‘pillars of their community’
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home in Netiv Ha’asara on October 7
Bilha Inon, 75, and her husband Yakov Inon, 78, were murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home in Netiv Ha’asara.
The couple’s house was completely burned down in the Hamas onslaught, and while Yakov’s remains were identified a few weeks later, Bilha was officially considered a missing person until August 2024, when the military announced that “a complex examination and investigation procedure” enabled them to confirm she had been killed.
Her family had long accepted that she was gone, and had sat shiva for both Bilha and Yakov back in October. Bilha and Yakov were survived by their five children, Mor, Maayan, Maoz, Magal and Magen, and 11 grandchildren.
In an interview with Channel 12 news in February, Maayan Inon said, “Dad sent us a WhatsApp message at 7:30 a.m. that they’re sitting in the safe room, the house is locked, and they’re hearing a lot of shooting and rockets.”
“By 7:45 a.m. they were already disconnected and not answering,” she said. “The house got a direct hit [likely from an RPG] and was on fire within minutes. This was a house built with light materials like plaster and plywood.”
Writing in the Guardian in October, the couple’s son Magen Inon said that “the pain is unbearable. My parents were a stable rock in my and my family’s life, and the only consolation I have is that they died together. Inseparable in life and death.”
Magen said that his parents “lived fulfilling and happy lives and touched many people.” Yakov, he said, was a professional agronomist while Bilha was an early childhood education teacher and an artist.
Bilha and Yakov requested in their will that their bodies be cremated and spread out over the grounds of Netiv Ha’asara because they did not want their bodies to take up land.
The couple’s children have emphasized in interviews about the October 7 atrocities that their parents were lifelong peace activists who believed in reaching out and building bridges.
Maoz Inon told The New York Times that even in unthinkable times, he is continuing to pursue the path of peace as part of “my mom’s legacy. And I’m taking it for my mom. I’m taking it for my father. We will always have the reasons to hate. But I’m saying, one day, we’ll have to start using the power of reconciliation, the power of forgiveness.”
Speaking to Haaretz, Maayan said that despite her parents’ location just meters from the Gaza border, “they felt safe.”
“My dad always said: ‘We can’t live in fear,’” she said. “He claimed that fear is a subjective thing and he didn’t really feel it. My mom had some bouts of fear and anxiety. But they still chose to stay because they loved the area and the people, they were pillars of their community, and they lived well.”
