Shlomi Molcho, 63, and Ayelet Nir Molcho, 54, were murdered by Hamas terrorists in their home in Netiv Ha’asara on October 7.
They were survived by their three sons, Ben, Ido and Roi, as well as siblings and other family members. They were remembered as animal lovers, connected to nature and the land, and deeply in love.
Ayelet’s cousin, reporter Matan Tzuri, wrote about the couple in Ynet, noting that they were among the very first to be infiltrated by terrorists Saturday morning, arriving around 6:30 a.m. at the town just a few hundred meters away from the border. Shlomi called Roi, who was at the Supernova festival, and warned him to get out as fast as possible, saving his life.
Ido told Ynet that Ayelet was murdered inside her safe room, along with both of her dogs, while Shlomi was killed after he went out with his weapon and tried to fight them off.
“They were just incredible people, simple as that,” wrote Tzuri. “Lighthearted and pleasant, never made an issue out of anything in life. They did everything with good intentions and a lot of love. They loved people, nature, travel and animals. They were always surrounded by friends and family.”
Tzuri added that “their love could be seen in their eyes, in every conversation. Their gaze was always simple and warm, embracing, interested. A special, beloved couple.”
The couple’s friend and neighbor Galit B’dil remembered Ayelet as effortlessly beautiful and cool.
“A youthful woman, untouched by age, beautiful on the outside and so beautiful on the inside,” B’dil wrote on Facebook. “Simple, modest, talented and creative, unbelievably generous — no matter what was going on inside she was always cool. Almost always barefoot with straight hair in a ponytail and jeans, no jeans or makeup, no nail polish — just you, as nature created, the same as your personality, with no masks or affectations.”
B’dil described Shlomi as “such a sweet man — you would tell me that he melts from every abandoned kitten or dog – ‘He can’t help it, he’s driving me crazy,'” Ayelet would say. “You were a couple who looked like one person, tall, barefoot, with a shy smile and a calm soul, always united, quiet, modest.”
Kobi Paz, Shlomi’s cousin, described him as the paratrooper, hero, salt of the earth,” noting how both members of the couple shot at their attackers, fighting back before ultimately succumbing. “The heart shatters into a million pieces. May their memory be a blessing.”
Etty Molcho, Shlomi’s sister, visited their graves on the 30-day anniversary of their death: “In front of the dunes that my one and only brother Shlomi, and my one sister-in-law Ayelet, lived and breathed and loved so much,” she wrote on Facebook, sharing a photo of their gravestones.
“My beloved Shlomi and Ayelet were connected to me in every limb of my body. And they were cut away, leaving every limb of my body scorched and burned.”
