Ilan Weiss, 56: Kibbutz manager who you could ‘rely on for everything’

Ilan Weiss, 56, from Kibbutz Be’eri, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri and his body taken hostage to Gaza.

When the head of Be’eri’s local security team, Arik Kraunik, was killed in the first minutes of fighting, the rest of the team could not access the weapons locker since they didn’t have the key.

Ilan, who was a member of the volunteer civilian first responder team, had a key and set out to open the building, but was slain by gunfire and his body taken captive.

Later that day his wife, Shiri, and their youngest daughter, Noga, were kidnapped from Be’eri. The couple’s two older daughters were in the kibbutz’s youth wing, and managed to survive. Shiri and Noga were freed from captivity in November 2023, and it was only then that they found out that Ilan was missing.

Also on October 7, Ilan’s brother and sister-in-law, Amir and Mati Weiss, were also murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri, as were his brother-in-law and his nephew, Gil and Inbar Buyum. The Weiss’s beloved family dog, Ketem, was also killed in the attack.

In January 2024, the IDF declared that Ilan had been killed on October 7 and his body taken hostage. His body was retrieved from Gaza by IDF troops along with the body of fellow slain hostage Idan Shtivi in late August 2025.

He was buried on September 1, 2025, in Kibbutz Be’eri. He is survived by his wife, Shiri, their three daughters, Meital, Maayan and Noga, and his surviving siblings Raviv and Osnat.

Ilan was born in Holon to Miki and Avri, after his father – a Holocaust survivor – was widowed with two young sons and remarried his mother, according to a kibbutz eulogy.

In the 10th grade, Ilan moved to Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem as a student, where he tended to skip classes and spend time in the agricultural fields.

After graduating high school, Ilan enlisted in the IDF as a combat engineer, but was wounded and finished his service as an air traffic controller on the Nevatim Airbase.

Following his release, Ilan returned to Kibbutz Ramat Rachel and began working in agriculture, growing cotton. In 1992 he moved to Be’eri to work with their crops, where he met Shiri, who had been born and raised there.

The couple wed in 1995 and raised their three daughters in Be’eri. The family loved to travel together, and in August 2023 they took their last trip together as a family, to Budapest, where Ilan visited his father’s childhood home.

Ilan worked for a number of years in agriculture in Be’eri, while also getting a bachelor’s degree in management at the Ruppin Academic Center. He later worked for several years at the Be’eri printing house, before then working at its mechanic shop and then again in agriculture.

His most recent job, the kibbutz said, was as its infrastructure manager, overseeing building, electric and plumbing in the entire community. Over the years he was also on a number of committees and was the deputy of the civilian first responder team.

“In every place, he was a good friend, with a unique sense of humor, straightforward, hardworking and committed with every fiber of his being,” the kibbutz wrote. “In his quiet way, you could rely on him for everything… always there to help, dedicated, responsible, take charge, heading to any incident without fear.”

Ilan would take a casino cruise every year with friends, he loved bike riding with his brother-in-law Gil, and he devoted himself to cooking during the COVID pandemic, uncovering a new hobby and love, his family said.

His daughter, Meital, told Haaretz that her father “always looked for ways to help.”

“He was a family man, to him we were always above everything else,” she said. “He was always there for us, a listening ear and a father who would always show up when you needed something.”

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