Lidor Levy, 34, dies of wounds from Gan Yavne terror stabbing
Computer engineer leaves behind infant daughter and pregnant wife; family describes him as ‘exemplary, full of love, nobleness and generosity’
A victim of Sunday’s terror stabbing in Gan Yavne died of his injuries Thursday morning at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv.
Lidor Levy was a 34-year-old computer engineer. He leaves behind a pregnant wife, a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, parents and a brother and sister.
Levy was seriously wounded on Sunday when a Palestinian terrorist went on a stabbing spree at a local mall. Another man was seriously injured and a teenager was moderately injured. All three were rushed to Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod, with Levy later transferred to Ichilov for neurosurgery for a penetrative head injury.
“Lidor was an exemplary father, spouse, brother and son. He was a person full of love, nobleness, and generosity…We are left with a huge hole in our hearts. We will continue to live our lives according to the values he inculcated in us as a way of memorializing him,” his family said in a statement issued by the hospital.
The attacker, a 19-year-old Palestinian from Dura in the southern West Bank, was shot dead by security officers who responded at the scene.
Levy was previously seriously wounded in 2009 during his service with the IDF Combat Engineering Corps in Gaza. Despite his subsequent exemption from reserve military duty, he tried to get the army to call him up during the current war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The attack at Gan Yavne’s Friendly Mall was the second of the day after an off-duty soldier was stabbed and lightly injured at Beersheba’s main bus station.
Tensions in Israel and the West Bank have been high since the outbreak of the war following Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Authorities had expressed worries that violence could ratchet upward during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, though the last three weeks have not seen a major uptick in attacks.
Following the Gan Yavne attack, Hamas released a statement praising it as a “heroic operation” and calling on Palestinians to “escalate” attacks on Israelis.
