Tomer Shpirer

Tomer Shpirer, 37 from Gedera, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while out bike riding near Kibbuz Mefalsim on October 7.

According to Israel Hayom, Shpirer was riding his bike to train for an upcoming competition when the rocket sirens began. In the final photo taken of him alive, he was seen taking cover next to his car from potential shrapnel.

Shpirer then got in his car to head home instead of continuing to bike ride, and was shot and seriously wounded along the way. He managed to call his friend right after and say: “I was seriously injured, tell my wife and kids that I love them.” His friend, Ronen Aviv, tried to head toward him and help him, but realized there were dozens of terrorists lying in wait. Ronen was shot in the leg but manage to escape and survive.

Shpirer’s body was located and identified several days later. He was buried on October 13 in Kibbutz Nitzanim.

He is survived by his wife, Etan, two children, Bar, 6, and Yam, 3, his parents, Yoram and Maya, and his younger siblings. His aunt, Hagit Shpirer, was killed in an accident during her army service in 1988.

Etan and Tomer met in Tel Aviv when he was working in a restaurant kitchen and she was a manager there. It was love at first site, she said, and they were married within six months, moved south and opened a restaurant in Sderot, before the COVID pandemic forced them toward new career paths.

More than a month after he was killed, Etan wrote on Facebook that she still cannot believe he is gone: “I feel a little bit like you really did get lost and you need to come back. Or that we had a fight and you’ll return soon. But you’re not coming back and time has stopped.”

“I thought we had our whole lives to have so much more fun together,” she added. “I didn’t even get to see you that horrible Saturday before. I didn’t even get to tell you that I love you. I look at photos and understand that we won’t have any more photos together.”

In recent years, Tomer became an avid and dedicated bike rider, and was training that Saturday morning for an upcoming Epic Israel competition that was slated for a few days later.

“He was the most competitive person I ever met,” Ronen told the Walla news site, noting how Tomer was inspired and driven by the top competitors in the Tour de France. “I know that if he was alive today, if he had survived this, he would be today on his bike.”

His bike riding companions made sure to recover the bike he was riding that day and restore it in his memory. They also made bike shirts with his name and photo on them, and have held several rides in his honor.

His father, Yoram, told Walla that that Tomer was “a truly gifted athlete… from the moment he discovered the bicycle, it was an endless source of joy,” he said, noting that he loves to watch videos of him riding, even though “I watch and I cry. But there’s also a comfort, because I see how much it fulfilled him.”
Source: The Times of Israel