Amir Naim.Photo:Gal Naim
Gal Naim
“He was just a very kind person that you could always count on. He always got your back,” Gal, 35, tells PEOPLE. “He reminded me why we came to this country, because you’re always with your family.”
Gal Naim (back row, far left) and Amir Naim (back row, second from left) with their cousins.Gal Naim
At 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, a barrage of rockets struck the area surrounding Kibbutz Erez — the place Amir, his parents and siblings called home. Amir, a former member of the special operations squad of the IDF, was one of the first two people from a local emergency response team to arrive to help.
At the scene, he and the small team split into many positions with minutes to spare before Hamas attempted to infiltrate the kibbutz. They entered an intense, three-hour battle against the terrorists.
“Finding out my cousin died was one of those moments I will remember every single second,” Gal says. “I already had a feeling in the morning. No one knew what was going on. I knew the kibbutz was attacked. It’s a small community so usually it doesn’t take a while to figure out what’s going on. But this time no one was answering.”
“I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it,” he continues. “We remember him for all the happy moments and all the family pictures. We’re still in disbelief. I don’t know when you actually understand what happened.”
He adds: “We’re just a normal family just trying to raise families in Israel as best we can. But this is not normal.”
Gal and Amir Naim with their cousins. (Gal is standing second from the left, Amir is standing sixth from the left).Gal Naim
Amir leaves behind a wife, Shahar, who he had been with since high school. They began dating a decade ago on a trip to Poland to learn more about the Holocaust, and a few days before Hamas' attack, they celebrated one year of marriage. Recently Shahar learned that she’s pregnant.
“It’s not easy for his wife, who’s also pregnant, but she’s a strong person,” Gal says. “She just had her first checkup and everything’s good. She told us Amir left her a present,” referring to their child.
Gal explains that their grandfather has been “fighting for his life” in the hospital since Yom Kippur. The family decided to wait until he was strong enough to tell him about Amir.
“I wasn’t there at the moment but I understood it was very hard,” Gal says. “When I saw my grandfather after he found out, he told me we all knew Amir died a hero.”
source: people.com
