Rami Negbi

Ram “Rami” Negbi, 57, from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the kibbutz.

As chief of the kibbutz’s local security team, he was posthumously recognized by the Defense Ministry as a fallen soldier with the rank of major in the reserves.

The morning of the attack, Rami wrote to the other members of the local security squad that something unusual was happening, and they should gather with their weapons at a central location, according to Israel Hayom.

His wife said he left the house around 7 a.m. and never returned.

Not long after he messaged the other members of the team, Rami reported that he had encountered a cell of terrorists. He was killed in the firefight and the terrorists stole his weapon.

Rami was one of four people slain that morning in the kibbutz, along with Silvia Mirensky, Noa Glazberg and Marcelle Taljah.

His funeral was held in Eilat on October 31, and he was buried in Ein Hashlosha. He is survived by his wife, Lydia, their two daughters, Sunshine and Noy, his three siblings, Dror, Anat and Hila, and two grandchildren.

Rami, who was born in Bat Yam, had lived in Ein Hashlosha for many years, and served as the head of its local security team for close to 20 years. He met and married Lydia, a native of the Philippines, raising together her daughter, Sunshine and their shared daughter, Noy.

In an interview with a local news site in 2018, Rami spoke about the immense sense of responsibility he felt as head of security: “I live, breathe and feel this responsibility, all of my thoughts are focused on ensuring that nobody gets hurt… I’ll do everything to make sure nobody gets hurt.”

Rami said he felt that the rest of the country had no idea what was really going on with the communities around Gaza: “There have been rockets, mortars, wars — those who live outside of rocket range live in a different reality, they totally don’t understand how much it affects us.”

But most of the time he said, the upticks in violence are short, “and we live quietly, building our lives — and the rest of the nation is welcome to visit us, come stay here and get to know us up close.”

A kibbutz eulogy described Rami as “our mythological security chief, the right man, a partner in action. A talented musician. The most magical and inspirational man in the world. Always smiling. Always with the warmest and most accurate words. Always there for us. Our hero — in life and death.”

His stepdaughter, Sunshine, wrote on Facebook on what would have been his 58th birthday, of her longing to “go back to the kibbutz and for you to complain that we’re making noise.”

“I want to annoy you and tell you about all of my ideas and for you to tell me how insane I am,” she continued. “I want for you to make us a barbecue again because a day before the [Hamas attack] the meat you made us was dry.”

“You weren’t my father, but you gave me a new life, you were as proud of me as any father who is proud of his daughter, you didn’t need to say it but I knew that you loved me and you always took care of me exactly like any father would,” added Sunshine.

She said that he would often ask her, “‘So what are we doing?’ and I would always answer, ‘I don’t know.’ And now I really don’t know… What do you do when the most important figure in your life leaves and is never coming back?”

בנם של אלנה וראובן. נולד ביום כ' במרחשוון תשכ"ו (15.11.1965) בבת ים. אח לדרור, ענת והילה. רם רמי נישא ללידיה ולזוג נולדה ילדה: נוי. רב סרן רם רמי נגבי נפל בקרב ביום כ"ב בתשרי תשפ"ד (7.10.2023). בן חמישים ושבע בנופלו. הוא הובא למנוחות בבית העלמין האזרחי בקיבוץ עין השלושה. הותיר אחריו אישה, ילדה ושלושה אחים.