Slain hostage Eitan Levy laid to rest in Bat Yam after body returned to Israel

Shahar Levy eulogizes his father, Eitan Levy, whose body was returned to Israel by Hamas earlier this week.

Levy, a taxi driver from Bat Yam, was killed by terrorists as he drove a passenger to Kibbutz Be’eri early in the morning of October 7, 2023.

He is buried in his hometown of Bat Yam.

“Dad, I’ve learned what it means to live without a father,” says Levy. “What it means to wake up every day and be the man of the house. To take care of Mom, of Sani, of Chen — all of them broken and falling apart each day because they miss you so much. Riff and River, who’ve become little men themselves, keep searching for your presence all the time. And me… I’m broken too. As if someone shot me straight through the heart.”

He tells his father he is getting married in March, and that when he has children, he will name a son after him.

“Yes, we had our hard moments — the arguments between a father and son — but I know you forgive me, because I made mistakes, and I want you to know, up there among the angels, that I forgive you too — with a heart that’s broken, but whole,” says Levy.

“My father, my new life is a life alongside grief, alongside loss.
I’m learning to love, to laugh, to work — but always with a hole in my heart. The place that belongs to you,” he says.