Eli and Sharon Refai, 42 & 27: Brother killed trying to rescue sister

Eli Refai (Rafael), 42, and his sister Sharon Refai, 27, both from Yavne, were murdered by Hamas terrorists near the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Sharon was attending the festival with her boyfriend, Shahar Manzur, when the Hamas attack began, and another friend, Oriya Ricardo. When the rocket fire started, the three left for their car and had reached the Mefalsim junction when Shahar was shot by Hamas terrorists, and the car flipped.

Sharon called her brother Eli in a panic. He immediately set out to try and help her, although when Sharon realized how many terrorists were lying in wait, she told him to turn back but he didn’t listen, their family said. When he neared the junction, he was shot by a cell of terrorists, and the family believes Sharon was on the phone with him at the time and heard the gunfire.

Her mother said she later spoke to her on the phone as she was trying desperately to escape alive: “Sharon said she was sorry she called Eli… ‘Sorry I ruined your life, we’re going to try and escape but I don’t know if I’ll make it out,'” she said on the call. That was the last her family heard from her. Shahar and Oriya were also both killed that day.

After several days, the Refai family was informed that Sharon’s body had been identified, and she was buried on October 12 in Yavne. Several days later, Eli’s body was identified, and he was buried on October 16 alongside her.

They are survived by their parents, Metuka and Shlomo, and four other siblings: Livnat, Reut, Liav and Aviel.

Eli worked as a logistics manager for a cosmetics company, while Sharon, who was finishing her studies in information systems, worked for a chain of party goods stores. The siblings were very close, their family said, and after their parents’ divorce, Eli was a father-like figure to Sharon, always worrying about her.

Their sister, Reut, told Channel 12 news that Sharon was volunteering with at-risk youth and looking for a steady job, “planning to get married and to build a family, Shahar was the love of her life. Just when she was arriving at a point to reap the benefits, her life was cut short monstrously. We are left heartbroken.”

Their older sister, Livnat, told Ynet that Sharon and Shahar had been dating for about a year and had only recently moved in together in Ramat Gan, while planning a joint future: “The day she met Shahar she knew he was the one for her. She introduced him to the family as ‘my future husband,’ and we were so happy for her.”

Livnat said Eli was the heart of the house, “we could barely ask for something and he was already ready and waiting for us. We wanted him to take care of himself, to build a life and have a family, but he dedicated his whole life to us.” She said that Eli “worried in particular about Sharon, during her final two years as a student she lived with him and he took care of all of her needs.”

Sharon, she said, was a calm, steady influence, and even when she knew she had lost both Eli and Shahar, she stayed calm and warned her other friends at the festival not to come to the same area, saving their lives: “She spoke calmly and in control even in the most difficult and terrifying moments, when her life was in danger, when she just lost the two men who were her whole world,” said Livnat. “That’s how she was her whole life, brave and heroic and in control and taking care of everyone. Always optimistic and believed that the end will be good. But this time it ended in a great tragedy.”

Their mother, Metuka said, “Eli always supported me and was by my side through good and bad. A child with a huge soul who never thought about himself, only about others. He raised, taught and supported his three younger siblings… Thanks to him I am standing on my own two feet.”

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