Gil Avni, 25: Skilled boxer slain alongside best friend

Gil Avni, 25, from Caesarea, was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

He was killed alongside his childhood friend, Omri Lavi.

Avni was considered missing for a week after his death until his body was found, and his family was notified of his passing on October 13. He was buried in the Caesarea Cemetery on October 15.

Avni is survived by his parents, Zipporah and Oded, and his four older siblings, Ron, Dana, Eliad, and Or.

On the morning of October 7, Avni and Lavi attempted to escape in Avni’s car, heading toward Kibbutz Be’eri.

The car was found a few days later with broken windows and blood stains inside. The two bodies were found within a week.

After his death, the members of Avni’s immediate family got his signature tattooed on their arms.

Lavi and Avni were close friends from a young age. They separated when they joined the IDF at age 18, with Lavi joining the Golani Brigade and Avni joining the paratroopers. They both became commanders and maintained a close friendship through the years. Among other things, they shared a love for the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team.

Avni had a very close relationship with his brother Or according to a Facebook post he shared 30 days after the burial. The two played video games together, went to soccer games and parties together all over the country, and spent hours video chatting when they were apart.

According to his brother Eliad, Avni was a skilled boxer, and Or said at his funeral that if it had been a fistfight instead of a gun battle, the terrorists who killed Avni “would have had no chance.”

“You are the strongest person I know,” Or said.

In a memorial post on Instagram, Avni’s friends wrote that “he was one big light everywhere he went and captured everyone with the most beautiful smile in the world.”

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