Goyitom Gebrehiyet, 40: Eritrean asylum seeker who 'helped everyone'

Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7

Goyitom “Gigi” Gebrehiyet, 40, an Eritrean asylum seeker living in Sderot, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the city that day.

Early that morning, he got up to go for a run in the city, not knowing that it had been invaded by terrorists.

While he was out on a jog, he was mowed down by Hamas gunmen on Herzl Street.

His body was flown back to Eritrea for burial.

Gigi is one of three asylum seekers — along with Adam “Puma” Brema and Wolderaphael “Tiger” Hagos — who were slain by Hamas that day. Since they entered Israel illegally, they are not recognized by the state for the purpose of benefits, unlike foreign workers from Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines who came on work visas.

According to Haaretz, Gigi, as he was known to his friends, worked as a carpenter and car mechanic before he left his home country.

He settled in Sderot in 2008 where he worked as a welder.

His younger brother, Merwahi Gebrehiyet, who lives in Tel Aviv, told Haaretz that he tried to call his brother at 8 a.m. that day but he received no answer, not knowing that it was already too late and Gigi had been murdered.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. When his brother’s body was identified, and social workers came to inform him, “I didn’t ask what had happened to him, and they didn’t say,” he told the newspaper.

Merwahi said that his older brother always took care of him, after they lost their mother at a young age and more recently when he was injured in a car accident.

“He wasn’t just my brother,” he told Haaretz. “He was like a mother and father to me… The two of us were here alone,” he added. “When I needed something, he was the one who thought about me. Everything that I ever wanted, he got me. A real man, he helped everyone.”