Naor Hasidim & Sivan Elkabets, 23: Together since they were 16

Naor Hasidim, 23, and his longtime girlfriend Sivan Elkabets, 23, were murdered by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7.

The couple, who both grew up in Ashdod, were together since they were 16, when they met in high school. They were killed inside Sivan’s apartment in the youth wing in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where her family moved a few years ago.

Neighbors said the couple were likely pulled out by terrorists from their secure room and murdered on the couch in their living room.

They were buried side-by-side in Ashdod several days apart, as their bodies were discovered separately. The Hebrew phrase “in life and in death, they did not part” is written across their double headstone.

Sivan is survived by her parents, Shimon and Anat, and her siblings Nadav, Guy and Noa. Naor is survived by his parents, Avi and Galit, and three siblings, Mor, Noa and Eliya.

Naor had recently started a new job in sales at the Cal credit card company in Ashdod. Sivan was studying computer science at the Sapir College in Sderot.

Sivan’s father, former Galatz director Shimon Elkabets, wrote in Ma’ariv about his daughter.

“You had such gentleness in you, but also stubborness and persistence and extraordinary diligence,” he wrote. “You were also independent, trusting, knowledgable. And when you weren’t, you always knew how to ask, you knew how to lighten up any challenging moment and make every task possible.”

Shimon wrote that Sivan was an excellent student, impressing all of her teachers, and also shone during her army service as a fitness instructor in the Air Force. “My little girl, my Sivani, the terrorists murdered you, but not who you were to all of us. You cannot murder beauty and morals. You cannot destroy kindness and true love. You cannot burn knowledge and wisdom. You can’t shoot and erase a smile and embracing arms.”

Sivan’s sister, Noa Elkabets, wrote on Facebook about her “‘little sister,’ who was always ‘bigger’ than me — taller, more noble, more gentle, more beautiful, more intelligent and thoughtful, more upright, more diligent, more convincing, because the way you spoke to the world was a more welcoming, correct way that gave a good feeling — you brought everyone toward you, without even trying.”

Naor’s sister, Mor Ben Hemo, wrote on Facebook that her brother was “the best and the warment. Thank you for 23 years where you made me laugh endlessly, watched over me and made sure that I would always have a smile on my face. During hard times you had my back. Speaking about you in the past tense burns my heart, but the way I felt on that Saturday is how I continue to feel — that you are with me in every step.”

Mor described him as “a boy who gives the world to those around him, a boy who makes everyone laugh when he makes fun of us with that mischievous smile that cracks us up, a boy who always put a smile on your face, and if there sometimes wasn’t he would turn the world upside down just to make you smile.”

On what would have been Naor’s 24th birthday, his mother, Galit, wrote on Facebook: “January 3 arrived and you are not with us. Everything has become unimportant, meaningless, too sad, empty. You were a child full of light, joy, smiles and goals, full of love… I miss our days together, we had everything we needed, and now I feel that there is nothing. I love you Naor and Sivan, thank you for all the good you brought us, you were so special, and only those who knew you would understand.”

Also on his birthday, his father, Avi, visited the apartment in Kfar Aza where he was murdered: “Today is his birthday. I came here to spend some time sitting in communion with him, to pray,” Avi told Reuters, while wearing a T-shirt with a photo of Naor and Sivan on the front. “There is a hole in my heart. I don’t know if it will close. It is opening wider and wider and wider.”

Avi said that he was only managing to cope with his grief through happy memories of the couple, including their joy at his daughter Mor’s wedding just a few months earlier: “How he danced, how she danced. How they hugged and kissed. How much they loved everyone and everyone loved them. These are the most beautiful memories in the world.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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