Dolev Yehud, 35: Engineer and volunteer medic who jumped into action

Dolev Yehud, 35, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.

For eight months, Dolev was believed to be held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, until in June 2024 his remains were discovered in Israeli territory.

His sister, Arbel Yehud, is still believed to be held hostage in Gaza along with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, as well as Ariel’s brother, David Cunio, whose wife and twin daughters were also taken captive and later freed in the November hostage release deal.

On the morning of the attack, Dolev — a volunteer medic with Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah — left home to help administer to the wounded and was himself killed in the onslaught.

With no sign of Dolev being held in Gaza, authorities decided to reevaluate unidentified remains found in the kibbutz, and new scientific identification tests paired with information on where the remains were found confirmed that a previously unidentified body belonged to Dolev.

Dolev was buried in Nir Oz on June 4, 2024. He is survived by his wife, Sigal, and their four children, Raz, 7, Yotam, 6, Ron, 4 and Dor, who was born on October 16, 2023, as well as his parents, Yehiel and Yael, brother Neta and sister Arbel.

Dolev — a civil engineer who worked in quality control — was described by his family and friends as a family man who loved standup comedy and comedy podcasts, and his wife said that his favorite Jewish holiday was Purim.

Following news of his death, United Hatzalah founder and head Eli Beer recalled Dolev as someone who “always acted for the sake of others and provided aid and assistance to all, even people he did not know.”

His uncle, Udi Doron, told Ynet, “Dolev was an incredible kid. He was a medic with both MDA and United Hatzalah. He headed straight for every incident or call, and also on October 7 he set out to save lives and left his kids and pregnant wife in the reinforced room.”

On the 30-day anniversary of Dolev’s funeral, his wife, Sigal — who had been with Dolev since they met in the 6th grade — wrote that she couldn’t believe, “I’m standing here and you’re not by my side. Not here to hold my hand. Not here so that I can lean on you so that you can catch me so I don’t fall.”

“I always felt that you and I were forever, like in fairy tales, that nothing could happen to us,” she added. “You live so much inside me, but you are so missed… You are my whole life, my whole world. A world that is cracked. A world that is broken.”

“You can probably see that our friends are surrounding me all the time, making sure to embrace, to care for, to love, like every close family member,” Sigal wrote. “But there is a part that will never be filled, and it belongs to you. There will always be a hole in my heart in the shape of you.”