Wolderaphael Hagos — requiem.nw

Killed at Sderot on October 7, 2023, aged 40.

His life

Musical Eritrean asylum seeker. Murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7.

His story

Wolderaphael “Tiger” Hagos Berhe, 40, an Eritrean asylum seeker, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Sderot on October 7.

He was a musician who played the krar, a string instrument popular in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and he also worked odd jobs around the city. He is survived by his mother and his son, who live in Eritrea.

In videos posted on social media and YouTube, Tiger can be seen playing the krar and singing. In his own posts, he regularly wore a belt buckle with a flag of Eritrea, and expressed his love for his homeland.

According to the Jerusalem African Community Center, Tiger, as he was known by his friends, went out to hang out with his friends in the city and never made it home. He was considered missing for several months, until a long process to identify his remains by DNA was completed in December.

His body was finally sent back to Eritrea for burial on January 7.

His friend, Takele, told Haaretz that “we were together until a little before 6:30 a.m. There was a small party with friends at home,” he said. “When I got home, I heard sirens and gunshots. I saw dead people from my shelter and heard shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar.'”

Takele said he tried to track Tiger down and was told that when he’d left their gathering he had headed toward the police station, which was the site of a fierce battle between Hamas terrorists and Sderot police officers.

“When I didn’t get a hold of him over the phone, I understood.”

October 7, 2023

It began at twenty past six in the morning with rocket fire and a coordinated crossing of the perimeter at some thirty points.

At the Nova music festival near Re'im, three hundred and sixty-four people were killed. Most were in their twenties. They had been dancing since before dawn and had nowhere to go across open ground.

In the kibbutzim and villages along the fence - Be'eri, Kfar Aza, Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, Holit and others - families were killed in their houses and their shelters. Be'eri lost about a tenth of its people.

About twelve hundred were killed in all, the large majority of them civilians, and two hundred and fifty-one people were taken into Gaza.

Among the dead were the volunteers and off-duty people who drove toward it without orders. Rachel Edri of Ofakim kept the men who held her and her husband talking for twenty hours, feeding them biscuits and coffee, until a rescue reached the house.

It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, and Israel stopped.

Everyone taken by October 7, 2023 →

The ground

Sderot

October 7, 2023 · 62 named here