Ran Poslushni, 48, from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, was accidentally killed by IDF fire while battling the Hamas invasion of the kibbutz on October 7.
He was buried on October 10 in Yavne, where he grew up. He is survived by his wife, Sharona, their four children Ilay, 19, Imer, 16, Einan, 14 and Emanuel, 6, his parents, Dominique and Motti, and his siblings Gilad, Shahar and Tom.
His wife, Sharona, told Haaretz that when Ran realized the kibbutz had been invaded by terrorists, he took his son’s army rifle and loaded it with ammo. Through their locked door he shot at several of them, who fled, and then later shot at another group who were trying to enter through the window.
“This was Ran,” she said. “He wanted to fight them face to face and refused to enter the reinforced room.”
Hours later, she recounted, Ran heard a group of soldiers outside shouting “terrorist, terrorist,” and he ran to the balcony to shoot at the figure, but the group of soldiers saw him and thought he was the terrorist, opening fire and killing him immediately.
“I screamed ‘Ran, Ran, Ran,’ and I crawled toward him. He was lying on his back in a puddle of blood. I gave him mouth-to-mouth but it was clear that he was dead,” Sharona recounted.
Ran’s father, Motti, told the newspaper that they “are not angry at anyone, the soldiers did their job and risked their lives. Unfortunately it cost us the life of our firstborn and beloved son, Ran, who was killed while protecting his home and his family.”
At his family’s request, he was recognized by the Defense Ministry two weeks after his death as a fallen soldier with the rank of sergeant major in the reserves.
Raised in Yavne, Ran served as a tank commander in the IDF’s 401st Brigade during his mandatory military service, then studied criminology and sociology at Bar Ilan University, where he met Sharona. The couple moved to Nahal Oz in 2015, and Ran worked as a dockworker at the Ashdod Port.
A eulogy from the kibbutz noted that Ran “loved to travel around Israel, to hike challenging paths, to bake sourdough bread and cook meat.”
In an interview with Yediot Aharonot in 2018, Ran described life in the kibbutz as a “slice of paradise.”
“The decision to live in this area was brewing for a few years,” he added. “It’s a pastoral location, beautiful, with an incredible community.”
His friend Inbar Madmon Gamliel wrote on Facebook thanking Ran for “all you were (and all you did!) for everyone.”
“The first to help, to lend a shoulder, with your wit up until your last moment, the smile that was always on your face, the respect you made sure to give everyone,” she wrote. “The trips, the meals, the breads… I promise you that the way you were always there for us, we will be for Sharona and the kids.”
In a video testimony, Sharona noted that Ran was “always cool” in emergencies and had a unique sense of humor.
“Ran would always joke about everything, there was nothing he wouldn’t poke fun at,” she said, noting even during the events of October 7, he said they might as well prepare jachnun — “if we’re going to die, we might as well die full.”
