Lilia Giller, 61: Single mom doted on her four Pekingese dogs
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7
Lilia Giller, 61, from Ofakim, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7.
Lilia was one of 13 people, mostly Russian-speaking senior citizens, who were aboard a minibus heading for a day trip to the Dead Sea early that morning. The bus got a flat tire and stopped in Sderot next to a bus stop that doubled as a bomb shelter.
The group were standing outside the bus stop when the rocket fire began, and while the electronic door of the shelter was supposed to automatically open during a siren, it remained locked and the tripgoers were unable to enter. Moments later, a pickup truck of Hamas terrorists drove by and opened fire on the group, killing every one of them — only the bus driver survived.
Images of the brutal bus stop massacre were among the first to circulate in Israel and around the world early that morning. Lilia was slain alongside the rest of the passengers, including Igor Kurtser, Berta Shamayev and Michal Zarbailov.
Lilia was buried in Ofakim on October 12. She is survived by her three children, Michael, Sharon and Eden, whom she raised as a single mom.
According to an Ofakim municipal eulogy, Lilia loved animals and specifically dogs, and had four Pekingese dogs of her own, named Dudi, Klufa, Chula and Lulik, that she showered with love. Lilia liked to travel and already had her next trip planned for two days after the attack — this time to Russia.
Her daughter, Eden, told a Russian-language Israeli news site, “It’s incredibly hard. My mother was a single mother, and now I’m alone.”
Eden said that for days she and her siblings did not officially know what had happened to her mother, but they had seen photos of the bus stop massacre and thought she might be among them. Receiving the official news after five days “was a huge shock and a lot of pain.”
“There is not a day when I do not think about my mother,” she said. “My body hurts, and so does my soul. I try to be strong because I know she would be proud of me… my mother did not choose to be killed by terrorists, she just wanted to relax at the sea.”
