Leonid Lozovsky, 51: Security guard who 'loved nature and long hikes'

Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7

Leonid Lozovsky, 51, from Sderot, was murdered by Hamas terrorists on his way to work on October 7.

He worked as a security guard at the TopGum food factory in Sderot. He was on his way to work early that morning to replace the night guard, but he never arrived for his shift.

His father went out to search for him while the city was still under attack, but couldn’t find him. Two days later, Leonid’s body was found in the city by police officers searching for victims.

He was buried in Sderot on October 10. He is survived by a wife, three children, his parents, Faina and Yosef, and his siblings.

Born in Ukraine, Leonid and his family moved to Israel in 1990, when he was 18, to avoid his conscription in the Red Army, according to his niece.

They settled in Sderot, and Leonid then attended an ulpan for intensive Hebrew studies in a kibbutz up north before enlisting in the army and serving in the Israeli Air Force. The move to Israel and his time in the IDF filled him with a renewed sense of self and inner strength, his family said.

His niece, Maayan Gal, wrote on Facebook that Leonid and his family “moved to Israel to be saved from cruelty and antisemitism that knocked on the door of their lives with an imminent threat… he was saved once at 18 and murdered at 51.”

Maayan said that Leonid has “left a huge hole, my heart is broken. It’s hard to accept. We have a drop of comfort in that you didn’t suffer, that it was immediate. You don’t deserve this and neither does anybody. Neither do your children or your wife or Grandma and Grandpa or Mom.”

Leonid, she wrote, “loved to ride his bike, loved nature and long hikes. He loved cameras, family vacations in Eilat and extended family gatherings (the kind everyone runs from). He left behind three children, a wife, parents, brother and sister. The sky has darkened, the sun has set, and a memory full of love has been etched in my heart.”