Celine Ben David, 32: New mom celebrating last week of maternity leave
French-Israeli mother murdered while on the way to Supernova music festival, October 7
French-Israeli citizen Celine Ben David Nagar, 32, was murdered by Hamas while on her way to the Supernova music festival on October 7.
She was missing for 10 days and thought to be held hostage until her body was identified on October 17 and her family informed of her death.
She is survived by her husband, Ido, and their six-month-old baby Ellie, her parents, Miriam and Tzion, and brother Samuel. She was buried on October 17 in Holon.
Born in France, Celine moved to Israel at age 16 with her family and settled in Ashdod; after getting married the couple lived in Holon.
Friends and family said Celine was slated to return to work after six months of maternity leave, and went to the party as one last celebration before her return to working as an administrative assistant at a law firm.
Celine attended the rave with her friend Shiraz Tamam and her husband Adir Tamam, but they never reached the event. The friends turned their car around when rockets began falling around 6 a.m., and ran to a field shelter on the outskirts of a community.
Celine last updated her husband that the IDF was on their way and she was sure she would be rescued. He never heard from her again, and was convinced that she had been kidnapped.
“She is an amazing woman, a person who is surrounded by friends and love,” Ido told the BBC during the period in which she was missing. “And she is an amazing mother. We have a six-month old baby. This was supposed to be her one last party to enjoy before she returned to work. We agreed that I would pick her up at midnight, but she never came home.”
Her friend, Yaelle Krief, penned a letter on Facebook to six-month-old Ellie, recalling how they first met while in high school and studying Hebrew in ulpan together.
“Ellie, your mother was so beautiful, inside and out, and you look so much like her,” she wrote. “Ellie, I am writing these words to you because you probably won’t remember her smile, her warmth, or how her voice sounds. So many people knew her, loved her, appreciated her. I think we must write and speak about her to honor her memory, and so that she will live in you forever. So that you never forget how special your mother was.”
On what would have been their two-year wedding anniversary, on November 1, Ido wrote to Celine on Facebook, about “the day you walked toward me in a white dress, at the height of emotions, with the happiest tears there are in your eyes.”
Nagar said “it was clear to me that you were the woman of my life, the ultimate partner to embark on the journey of life.” From the moment they first met, he said, “it was clear to both of us that this was forever.” At the wedding, he said, they “said the blessings, got married, and from the moment we broke the glass… we didn’t stop celebrating, until that horrible Saturday.”
“We were together almost four years, and married almost two years — full of experiences, full of memories. You insisted we experience, you insisted we photograph and document everything. Thank you for that. You gave me four perfect years and I have everything I need to tell Ellie about all the happy moments we had together.”
