Izhar Peled

Izhar Peled, 61, Gila Peled, 59, and their son Daniel Peled, 28, were murdered together in their home in Kfar Aza on October 7.

Izhar was a longtime police officer who retired in 2020 with the rank of assistant commissioner, after holding numerous senior positions in the Border Police, most recently as commander of its West Bank division. Gila was a nurse with the Clalit medical provider who worked in Ashkelon. Daniel was a paramedic who dreamed of studying medicine in the future.

They were survived by the three other siblings in the family, Yoni, Reut and Rotem, as well as several grandchildren/nieces and nephews.

The Clalit health service memorialized Gila as “an example and role model in her committment and devotion to the team working with her and to the patients, who greatly appreciated her.”

The Border Police said it will “forever remember [Izhar’s] enormous contribution to the security of the State of Israel and to strengthening the force of the corps,” recalling his tenure as one marked by “professionalism, long-term vision and a love of people and the country.”

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Border Police Commander Brick Yitzhak mourned the loss of Izhar: “When they told me he was missing, I imagined him in the dens of Gaza driving the terrorists crazy.” He was later informed of his death. “The eulogies at the funerals were tough, I had to stop and got choked up a few times,” he admitted.

Friends and family of Daniel, who called him “Dandi,” all recalled his big love for gummy candies, and chose to memoralize him by asking people around the world to put out a bowl of gummy candy with a note about Daniel.

“Daniel was a paramedic, a personal trainer, and the funniest and most charismatic person in the room,” they wrote on the Instagram account Dandi’s Candies. “Daniel would always joke that during his shiva [mourning period] he wanted to serve gummy candy and definitely not burekas or something else sad like that.”

They added that “this is how we’ve chosen to remember Daniel… who was sweet, colorful, happy and was good for the heart — just like gummy candy.”

Their sister and daughter-in-law Nitsan Peled wrote on Facebook a day after they were murdered memorializing “My dear father-in-law Izhar, a revered commander, a rare man of values, a Zionist. A much-loved father and grandfather. My mother-in-law Gila, and angel on earth, her whole purpose in this world was help and goodness. The glue of our home. Daniel, my brother-in-law Dandi, the unique, the funny, the spreader of light, who only started living.”

Reut Peled, Daniel’s sister and Izar and Gila’s daughter, wrote on Facebook marking a month since the three of them were laid to rest side by side.

“When will I understand, mom, that I won’t see your curls anymore, that I won’t feel them on my shoulder when we hug, that there is nobody to stroke my head on the couch when I’m a little sad,” she wrote. “And when will I understand, Dad, that nobody will give me kisses on the head anymore, just because, as they walk past me, on the way to the kitchen or to water the garden.”

“And when will I understand, my little brother, that you didn’t just skip Friday night dinner again, that you’re not going to show up in the doorway by surprise,” she continued. “And when will I understand how it can be that you were born after me and left before me. When will I understand that we’re no longer four siblings,  because mom always used to say that a stable table stands on four legs.”

“And when will I understand how to part from half a family in one blow, when I haven’t really understood at all that you’re really no longer here.”
Source: The Times of Israel