Dror Or, 48: Cheesemaker, yoga instructor and father of 3

Dror Or, 48, from Kibbutz Be’eri, was murdered by terrorists on October 7 and his body taken captive to Gaza.

It was finally returned to Israel by Hamas on November 25, 2025.

Dror and his wife, Yonat, and their two younger children, Noam and Alma, were hiding out in their reinforced room as terrorists rampaged through the kibbutz.

The gunmen set fire to their home, and Dror and Yonat decided to send their children out the window before following. They all split up, and Yonat was murdered and Noam and Alma were taken hostage to Gaza. Separately, Dror’s nephew, Liam Or, was also taken hostage from Kibbutz Re’im.

Noam and Alma were released from Gaza on November 25, 2023, during a weeklong ceasefire, and Liam was freed several days later. Dror’s fate at that time was still unknown.

On May 2, 2024, the kibbutz announced that it had been determined that Dror had been killed on October 7 and his body taken captive to Gaza. The family sat shiva, the weeklong mourning period, but could not hold a funeral.

Dror’s body was returned to Israel by Hamas on November 25, 2025. He was buried in Be’eri next to his wife on November 30.

He is survived by his three children, Yahli, Noam and Alma, his parents, Dorit and Yuval, and two siblings, Elad and Dana.

He was born and raised in Kibbutz Re’im, not far from Be’eri. As a young adult, Dror attended the Tadmor Culinary School and then worked in a number of restaurants in Tel Aviv, including the famed Suzana.

He married Yonat, who was born and raised in Be’eri, and the family lived first in Tel Aviv before deciding to settle in her hometown.

At first, Dror worked in the kibbutz’s noted printing house before returning to his culinary roots and moving to join its cheesemaking operation in 2009. He later studied cheesemaking in Italy and France and also ran a dairy catering business.

Dror was active and loved world travel and basketball as well as yoga – he had practiced for 20 years and even became certified as an instructor.

Dagan Peleg, who worked with Dror at the Be’eri dairy, told The Times of Israel in July 2024 that “we didn’t agree on the small things – but that was part of what made us work. He had a golden touch; he knew all kinds of things.”

He said that Dror was a talented chef “with an amazing touch, God touched him.” Just before October 7, he said, they were planning an expansion of the dairy: “Dror kept saying we should get the new equipment, and bring in a fourth partner who thinks differently than we do.”

Now, he said, “it’s hard to think about doing this without Dror… I was pessimistic at first, but now I’m in, because Dror would want it.”

Dror’s brother, Elad, told Army Radio on what would have been his 50th birthday, that Dror was “loved and wonderful, at the peak of his life, as a father, a family man, as a culinary producer, as an excellent friend.”

His father, Yuval, told Channel 13 news that when Dror was around, things were always calm: “It was almost like magic, when he would arrive somewhere, any frictions would disappear.”

His mother, Dorit, chimed in: “He had this inner peace ever since he was a child. His glance, his embrace – there was always a feeling with him that everything would be OK.”

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