Hashem Barawi, 59, an agricultural worker from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, was murdered on October 7 by Hamas terrorists near the Sha’ar Hanegev Junction in southern Israel.
Hashem was riding that morning in a van with six other Gazan laborers, being driven by Israeli Bedouin Sami al-Jerjawi, to his job working in Kibbutz Nir Am. Hamas gunmen opened fire on the van, as seen in video footage, killing Hashem, Sami and at least four other Gazan passengers. The fate of two additional passengers is unknown, although the IDF believes they returned to Gaza with the Hamas gunmen.
According to +972 magazine, Hashem worked in a number of communities in southern Israel for the past 40 years, including in Yad Mordechai, Nir Yitzhak and Ruhama, as a laborer and later contractor, working in citrus, banana and avocado fields.
Hashem’s brother, Nabil Barawi – who also worked in agriculture in southern Israel – told The Economist that he found out about his brother’s death from video footage sent by his relatives in Gaza.
“I cried,” he said. “Hashem was my closest brother. We worked at the kibbutz together and spent our whole lives together. He was the spine of the family, the leader, the one everyone relied on. He has many children and 25 grandchildren.”
Nabil said that it was important for him to clarify “that my brother and the workers who were killed with him are not terrorists, as some in the media are saying. They were ordinary workers with legitimate work cards.”
Lior Golan, from Kibbutz Ruhama, told +972 that he had “worked with a lot of laborers, but I never met a contractor like Hashem. He’s been here since the ’80s — one of the best people I know. Someone who always helped anyone in need. He made a point of getting to know each worker personally.”
Ofer Lieberman, the director of agriculture at Kibbutz Nir Am, told Haaretz that he had known Hashem for at least 30 years, and that “we were friends… when Qassam rockets fell on Nir Am, he would call to ask if I was okay.”
In 2016, Time magazine profiled the relationship between Hashem and Ofer, concluding that the pair both agreed that the next war between Hamas and Israel “would be catastrophic — and so it would be for ordinary Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
