Ofir Yaron, 51: Dad of 2 killed on the way to defend besieged kibbutz

Ofir Mordechai Yaron, 51, from Kibbutz Magen, was killed on October 7 in the Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Ofir wasn’t home that weekend, and was instead spending the holiday with his 90-year-old father. When his daughter called and told him of the Hamas invasion, he decided to set off toward his kibbutz, located in the south near Kibbutz Nir Oz, in order to help join the battle.

He was last heard from around 10 a.m. before all communication was cut off. His car was later found near Magen, but he was nowhere to be seen, and his loved ones believed he had been kidnapped.

After close to 10 days, his family was informed that his body had been found.

As a member of the kibbutz’s local security team, he was posthumously recognized as a fallen soldier with the rank of sergeant major in the reserves. His fellow local security officer, Avi Fleisher, was also killed that day while battling inside Magen. Two other local security officers were wounded, and everyone else in the kibbutz was saved.

Ofir’s funeral was held in Petah Tikva on October 17 and he was buried in Magen. He is survived by his wife, Olga, their two daughters, Emma, 18, and Dana, 12, and his five siblings.

Two weeks after his funeral, Ofir’s father, Aryeh, died. His mother, Carmela, had died in 2017.

His nephew, Shlomi Samocha, wrote that the news of Ofir’s death after 10 days of searching “broke our heart, and broke a little bit of the spirit that was carrying us like a leaf in the wind.”

“Hug the rainbow, now that you’re close, and Aunt Carmela, and send strength to those of us left here,” he added. Ofir was “a wonderful father, his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and cousins and many friends and an entire nation are pained by his tragic death.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.