Dana Petrenko, 23, Daniel Goltman, 24: Young couple was ‘never apart’

Daniela “Dana” Petrenko, 23, from Haifa, and her boyfriend, Daniel Goltman, 24, from Rishon Lezion, were murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

The couple managed to update their friends and family around 7 a.m. that they were trying to escape the party as it was attacked. Eyewitnesses later told their loved ones that as they were running, Dana had a panic attack and froze in place, unable to move. Daniel protected her with his body and they were murdered together, their bodies found in an embrace, their friends said.

He was buried on October 10 in Rishon and she was buried on October 13 in Haifa.

Daniel is survived by his parents, Valery and Alex, and his brother Itai. Dana is survived by her mother Olga and stepfather Roman, and her younger siblings Iris, 13, and Anton, 11.

The couple met in Eilat in 2021 and been insperable ever since, their friends said. Dana was slated to start studying economics at the College of Management Academic Studies (Colman) in Rishon, and Daniel was planning to begin his studies in structural engineering at the Sami Shamoon College in Ashdod, and they were planning on living with Daniel’s parents while they were students.

On Instagram, Daniel’s friend Lian Alon wrote that he was a “naturally happy person, in hard times you lifted others up, the kind of friend everyone would wish for, who helped and supported others. No matter what was going on, you would maintain your magical smile, because that’s who you were. You caused me to experience so many happy and great moments, you made me laugh like nobody else can, you were by my side when and where I needed you and for that I will always thank you.”

His friend Gal Bry wrote on Instagram that they had served together in the Navy, “and on the first day he arrived everybody already loved him, I took him under my wing and I told him that he would be an incredible medic and he truly was.” Bray said they shared “endless experiences and stories on the ship, being with the same person 24/7 is one thing but when you become family it’s hard to leave — the smile, the energy, the professionalism and the morale raising. I already feel lost without you.”

A page set up to memorialize the pair said that they were “a couple who from the day they met were never apart for a second, they loved life and took advantage of every moment, they loved to party and to laugh and to enjoy… Their whole lives were ahead of them.”

Dana’s close friend, Alisa Abelski, told Ynet that she was “a very hardworking girl, she was always very careful and thoughtful. She didn’t care what other people would say, she did what she loved. She had a very close and warm relationship with her mother and her younger siblings.”

Abelski told a local Haifa news site that Dana had “many, many plans for the future. She was already ready to help with any task, she was connected to her family, helped always with her little siblings, she practically raised them… She loved to party, to be happy, to dance. She loved life.”

Dana’s mother, Olga, told a Haifa radio station that her daughter’s death has left her “feeling that half of my heart has been cut out and thrown away. No parent should have to feel this way. We were waiting for her to start her studies, return to live in Haifa, give me grandchildren — I wanted so much to be a young grandmother, that was my dream.”

“I miss her smile, her kindness, the support she spread around, the sunshine that she was. Dana was everything.”

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