‘Twin souls’: Man dies by suicide at grave of close friend murdered at Nova on Oct. 7

A man died by suicide on Saturday at the gravesite of his close friend who was a victim of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre at the Nova music festival, highlighting the ongoing struggles that have resulted from the onslaught.

Bar Bechor Asraf, 30, from the Shaarei Tikva settlement, had been a close childhood friend of Liron Barda, 26, who worked as the bartending manager at the rave and refused to leave the site after terrorists invaded, instead staying behind to care for the wounded.

“They were inseparable. Twin souls,” the family told the Ynet news site. Barda was a frequent guest at Asraf’s home, and once flew to Colombia to surprise him while he was traveling there.

The family told Hebrew media that Asraf wasn’t the same after Barda’s murder. But on Wednesday, he danced and celebrated at his brother Maor’s wedding. His family said there were no signs then of what would follow just three days later.

Before he died, his sister Lihi told Ynet, “He told me how proud he was of me… I didn’t understand why he was saying all that to me.”

On Saturday afternoon, during a family celebration of their brother’s wedding, Lihi said, “Bar asked to go to the pool. We told him we didn’t have a membership, and he said ‘Okay.'”

She added, “When we couldn’t find him, we started to search on foot. We thought, ‘Where could he be?’ and we said we would go to Liron’s grave.”

She continued, “At first I didn’t see him. And then I saw him lying there. I shouted, ‘Bar, get up!’ but only then did I realize what had happened. At first I thought someone had killed him. I didn’t understand what I was seeing.”

בר אסרף, משערי תקווה, שם קץ לחייו בירייה על קברה של חברתו הטובה לירון ברדה שנרצחה בנובה. אמו סיפרה לוואלה שב-7 באוקטובר נסע לחפש אחריה, ומאז התקשה להתמודד עם מותה והתקעקע לזכרה. ״אמרתי לו ׳בר, קום׳. ואז ראיתי שהוא מלא בדם. הוא מת במקום בו הכי רצה להיות״, שחזרה אחותו pic.twitter.com/e3KqOt2Mgz

— אורי סלע Uri Sela (@uri_sela) August 2, 2026

Lihi said Barda’s death had severely affected Bar.

“At first he didn’t sleep for a week, didn’t speak, didn’t eat and didn’t laugh. Later he started to slowly become rehabilitated. He went back to laughing, talking to people, and spreading Liron’s love. He would organize meals for soldiers in her memory. He was a person who always helped others,” she said.

Bar’s mother Bracha said, “Liron had been everything to him. She was his best friend and his therapist. It was important to him to tell her about anything he did. After she was murdered, he would go almost every day to the cemetery.”

While he seemed to heal and was outwardly cheerful most of the time, Bracha said his pain had not abated more than two and a half years after the massacre.

“Two months ago he sat in the living room and cried. I asked him, ‘What happened?’ and he told me: ‘Mom, it’s hard for me without Liron. Nobody can replace her. I miss her.’ He hugged me and cried loudly, in a way I won’t forget.”

She told Walla, “He died in the place he most wanted to be.”