Sagiv Ben-Zvi, 24: Bartender who ‘saw the beauty in everyone’
Murdered by Hamas while trying to flee the Supernova festival on Oct. 7
Sagiv Beilin Ben-Zvi, 24, from Holon, was murdered by Hamas terrorists during their attack on the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Sagiv attended the festival with his close friend Roni Petrovski, who grew up on the same street as him in Holon. Both were listed as missing and feared kidnapped for almost three weeks, before their families were notified on October 25 that their remains had been identified.
They were both laid to rest on October 26 in Holon.
In late October, Holon MyNet reported that Sagiv was the 10th graduate of Holon’s Kiryat Sharet High School to have been killed or taken hostage on October 7 and in the fighting in the weeks that followed. Those graduates include soldier Agam Berger, who was kidnapped from the Nahal Oz base by Hamas on October 7 and appeared in a Hamas video filmed during the abduction of Berger and her fellow soldiers.
Sagiv’s mother, Natalie said that he and Roni and their other friends had returned from their post-army trip to South America just two months before the festival, and that Sagiv was working as a bartender at a restaurant in Holon.
Natalie told reporters that on the day of the attack, Sagiv and Roni left the festival at 6:30 and began making their way home. At 6:55, she said he told her that they were on their way back to Holon, but she soon lost contact with him. Their vehicle was later found near Kibbutz Mefalsim, but it would be weeks until the two friends’ bodies were finally found.
Natalie described her son as “smart, wise, and charming, full of goodness.” She said Sagiv was “always surrounded by tons of friends, he had circles of friends everywhere. He seemed quiet but he had great inner strength.”
A post on the Instagram memorial page set up for Sagiv describes him as a young man of many interests. He “loved sports and adventures, all types of music, and was nonetheless a total computer geek. His appetite for life knew no bounds, he had so many dreams that he would have surely realized.”
The post shows Sagiv at a picnic on a hilltop, smiling back at the camera. It speaks of the bashful smile he’d give teachers after cutting up in class, his freckles and his “beautiful blue-green eyes,” his skills as a born leader, and his ability “to always see the good things and the beauty in everyone.”
The author wrote that Sagiv loved history, politics, and international affairs, and believed that he could someday make the world a better place, “but he was just beginning.”
On the page, Sagiv’s sister Gil wrote how she is still waiting for him to come home, and that every time she hears a knock on the door her heart races and she runs to the door hoping to see her little brother on the other side. She said she will continue to wait for him every day as long as she lives.
“I refuse to believe that we won’t see you again in this world. My beloved little brother, the most beautiful boy with the biggest heart. I’m sorry that I couldn’t save you, sorry that I wasn’t there to take the bullets for you instead. I love you my soul, and I’m waiting for the day we meet again.”
