Mor Gabay, 30: Singer-songwriter whose lyrics have lived on
Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7
Mor Swid Gabay, 30, from Sderot, was murdered on October 7 by Hamas terrorists while fleeing rocket fire on Zikim Beach.
According to media reports, Gabay was with coworkers at a post-shift gathering on the beach when the rocket fire began, and she ran to her car and headed toward Sderot. She sought refuge in a roadside bomb shelter near the entrance to the city, then when things appeared to calm down again, got back in her car and was shot dead by Hamas. Her body was found several days later.
She is survived by her parents, Malka and Meir, and her five siblings, and was buried on October 10 outside Netivot.
Gabay, an aspiring singer-songwriter and event producer, worked as a cook at the Mileva pub in Beersheba. A post by the restaurant described her as “an inseparable part of the staff, a talented cook, with hands of gold and a huge soul and endless smile. Mori, our love, we will continue to memorialize the good you brought into the world and you will always be in our hearts.”
Her father, Meir, noted to Ynet that “in her short life, Mor managed to complete two years of national service, served a full IDF service and continued past the mandatory period.”
“Mor was a fighter, she was an independent child,” he told 103FM. “As a father, it feels like I lost a part of my body.”
Known for her love of music, several of her friends memorialized her through songs. Her friend Kay Ben Salmon wrote a song titled “Zoe and Ted,” after her beloved dogs, writing that “during the entire past month it has been so sad to see their expressions, waiting every day to receive all of your goodness which was ended so suddenly. This song is dedicated with great longing and a broken heart.”
Her friend Nave Guedj used Mor’s words to compose and release “Belonging to Everyone.” Guedj wrote that “Mor would write a lot of lyrics and always dreamed that her words would become songs.” After she found out about her murder, Guedj wrote, “I went into our WhatsApp messages and took the first set of lyrics I saw that she sent me, ‘You belong to everyone,’ and I set it to music. Through this song Mori is still with us, even if not physically, the song is a part of her. Mori was an angel full of light and joy, full of unconditional love and love for others.”
Her friend Peer Somech recalled her always “with your morning coffee on the grass [in training camp], with your big smile when we were all grumpy… I loved you so much Mor, and I will love you forever, this is how you are engraved in my heart — you were a light to me.”
Her friend Avia Paz Krispin wrote on Facebook that Mor is “the fun-ni-est person I have ever met, and you had competition. I was waiting for you to move to Tel Aviv, to start going on stage, so that dozens and hundreds and thousands of other people could hear you and cry from laughter until their stomachs hurt.”
Krispin wrote that her pain and grief were impossible to explain: “Thank you for all the good that you brought… I was privileged to know you and thank you for every day that you were in my life. Thank you for every day you allowed me to be part of your life. You will always be in my heart, in my body and in my soul.”
