Sgt. First Class Mulugeta Gadif, 29: Police officer left behind newborn

Sgt. First Class Mulugeta “Mulu” Gadif, 29, a police officer in the coordination of enforcement operations unit, from Kiryat Gat, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Be’eri.

With the start of the attack, Mulugeta was home with his family, and knew he would be called up to the front lines. He headed out to meet up with his team, and they went in the direction of Sderot before being told to head to Kibbutz Be’eri.

Nine police officers and a civilian — Ziv Shopen — entered Be’eri together in two armored jeeps, and almost immediately were ambushed by Hamas gunmen who fired RPGs at them and opened fire. Mulu, Ziv and seven other police officers were killed, including Sgt. 1st Class Dor Mangadi and Supt. Vadim Blih.

Amid the chaos in Be’eri and the heavy damage caused by the RPGs, Mulu’s body was not identified for a week. He was buried on October 16 in Kiryat Gat.

He is survived by his wife, Tali, their baby, Elia, his parents, Belaynesh (Sara) and Adana, and his younger siblings Malasa, Terualem (Rivka) and Temesgen.

The oldest in the family, Mulu was born in Gondar, Ethiopia. He attended local schools, loved to write, draw and crochet kippot, and was a successful athlete in both soccer and gymnastics, according to a state eulogy.

In 2007, when Mulu was 12, his family moved to Israel and lived in an absorption center in Beersheba, while he attended a dormitory school in Jerusalem. In 2009, his mother was in a bad car accident and was hospitalized for more than a year, during which Mulu diligently visited every day and slept by her bedside, continuing to care for her devotedly in the years afterward.

After graduating high school, Mulu attended the Oz Shlomo pre-military academy in Merkaz Shapira, and then enlisted in the IDF, serving as a sharpshooter in the Duvdevan commando unit. Toward the end of his service, he met Tali, and the couple got engaged in 2021 and married a year later. Their daughter, Elia, was born in May 2023. The couple had bought an apartment in Holon and were waiting for it to be refurbished before moving in.

Following his release from the army, Mulu worked as a security guard and in the evenings he established a local soccer team for youth in Kiryat Gat. In March 2023, he fulfilled his dream of enlisting in the Israel Police.

Tali told a local news site that the couple had so many plans for the future that were cut short: “We didn’t get to move into our new apartment, Mulu barely got to know his daughter, or to do what we planned to accomplish together.”

Even though their daughter knew her father for just five months, “she is aware that he is missing. He would come home every day from work and talk to her, laugh with her, she knew his voice. Every time anyone knocks on the door and she looks that way, when she sees that it’s not him she is sad.” Tali said that the little comfort she has, “is that Mulu died as he wanted, as a hero, as a leader who did everything he could to save others.”

His mother, Belaynesh (Sara), wrote on Facebook that she gave birth to Mulu, her firstborn, when she was 14, “and for 29 years I was so happy with him and my husband and my children.”

He was a doting older brother to his younger siblings, she said, “Mulu for me was everything, my whole world… he was such a brave and talented boy.” While she was recovering from her accident, Mulu “took care of me and treated me and did everything to strengthen me… the whole time I hoped and prayed for Mulu that he would be happy, and that everything he did would succeed.”

“The connection between Mulu and me was unique, we were really like good friends, we would talk about everything, things that only knew,” she continued. “I want everyone to know, all the people of Israel, that he fell in order to protect the State of Israel and its citizens so that we can live here in peace and love and brotherhood.”

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