Ron Benjamin, 53: Avid bike rider and devoted family man
Murdered by Hamas on October 7, his body kidnapped to Gaza and retrieved by the IDF in May 2024
Ron Benjamin, 53, from Rehovot, was murdered by Hamas terrorists near the Gaza border on the morning of October 7.
He was considered missing for many months, with no trace of him found following the attack. His family was informed in December that he was believed to be held hostage in Gaza.
A few months later, the IDF assessed that Ron was shot dead near the Mefalsim Junction while heading home from a planned bike ride near Kibbutz Be’eri, and his body was kidnapped to Gaza. His remains were recovered by IDF troops in an operation on May 16, 2024, alongside those of Amit Buskila, Shani Louk and Itzhak Gelerenter.
He was buried on May 20, 2024, in Kibbutz Palmahim. He is survived by his wife, Ayelet, and their two daughters, Shai and Gil, as well as his mother, Chana, brother Shuki and sister Iris.
He worked as a salesman for the Champion Motors car company, where he also met his wife; the couple had been married for 27 years. He was a longtime amateur drummer and avid bike rider, who most of all loved spending time with his family, said loved ones.
In an interview with Ayelet while he was considered missing to At Magazine, she said that during the two months that his fate was unknown, “the girls and I started to think what kind of funeral Ron would want, what song he would choose to play at his funeral. It was hard, Ron is a huge music fan.”
Ayelet said their life as a small family of four “was easy, work, pilates classes, trips. We were a very normative couple. We loved to go out on Thursday or Friday nights to pubs.”
With news that he was considered a hostage, the family’s hopes soared of one day seeing him alive again, until the tragic news arrived in May when his body was recovered.
His elder daughter, Shai, told the Kan public broadcaster the day before his funeral that she was “happy to know that he was murdered on October 7 and he wasn’t suffering there all this time, it’s a comfort to know he didn’t suffer, that at least it was fast.”
Shai said she had dreamed that one day her father “would walk me down the aisle, would be a grandfather to my kids, he would have been a great grandfather.” Ron, she said, “was really the best dad in the world, a full-time father. He always wanted to know what was going on with us.”
At his funeral, his younger daughter, Gil, eulogized him as “a caring father, loving, funny with a huge heart. If only I could have one more hug, one more joke, just to call you ‘Dad’ one last time. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to save you, to warn you, to help. You will be missed with my every breath.”
