Eitan Levy, 53: Cab driver and doting dad was ‘very family oriented’

Eitan Levy, 53, from Bat Yam, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on October 7 and his body kidnapped to Gaza. His remains were returned to Israel by Hamas in October 2025.

Eitan, a cab driver, dropped a passenger off in Kibbutz Be’eri around 7:15 a.m. that morning. He then called his son, Shahar, to tell him about the Hamas missiles. While on the phone, Shahar heard his father run into a Hamas ambush, and he heard Arabic shouting in the background and shooting before the call was ultimately disconnected.

After Eitan was missing for 40 days, his family was informed that he was believed to be held hostage in Gaza. Then, in December 2023, authorities confirmed that Eitan had been murdered on October 7 and his body taken captive.

In August 2024, his family agreed to release graphic footage showing Eitan’s body being driven through the streets of Gaza and being kicked and stomped on by Gazans.

After his death was confirmed, Eitan’s family held a memorial service and sat shiva, the weeklong mourning period, but were not able to hold a funeral.

His body was finally returned to Israel from Gaza on October 14, 2025. His funeral was held in Bat Yam two days later. Eitan is survived by his son, Shahar, and his sister, Sigi. He stayed close friends with his ex-wife, Aviva, and acted as a father figure to her three children with her wife, Chen: Sunny, River and Reef.

Eitan and Aviva wed in 1999 and Shahar was born in 2001. When he was seven, the couple divorced, and several years later, Aviva married Chen, and they had three children. Eitan was an integral part of the family, they said, stopping by almost every morning after a night shift driving his cab and having Friday night dinner together every weekend.

After the divorce, Eitan worked in Africa for a number of years for an Israeli construction company, managing its heavy equipment. He would return every few months for several weeks to see his son, his family said.

In 2016, Eitan was injured in a work accident and returned to Israel, where he worked as a cab driver and also provided roadside assistance. Around 5 years before he was killed, Eitan was in another bad car accident, and required two operations and a long rehabilitation.

Eitan’s sister, Sigi, wrote on Instagram to “my beloved brother, I miss you so much — your laughter, your concern for me, we would speak every day on the phone multiple times. I miss your voice, your smile – you were a person with a huge amount of generosity… Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you.”

His son, Shahar, told Laisha magazine that his father “was very family oriented and very happy. He didn’t have a simple life, but even when he had sad moments, he didn’t let us feel them. Anytime he would come over — and he would come to us a lot — it was joyous.”

Shahar said he hoped people would remember his father’s “kindness, his generosity, his family values, who he was in his life and not the way that he died.”

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