Boyfriend of Oct. 7 Massacre Victim Dead in Apparent Suicide at Her Grave

The boyfriend of one of the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks was found dead in an apparent suicide at her gravesite.

Bar Asraf, 30, was discovered by family members Saturday evening with a gunshot wound to the chest at the Elkana Cemetery in the West Bank, at the grave of Liron Barda, according to The Jerusalem Post. Efforts to revive Asraf failed.

Barda was working as a bar manager at the NOVA music festival in Re’im when Hamas terrorists surrounded the grounds and fired on attendees trying to escape. Friends and family begged Barda to flee, but she refused, choosing to administer first aid to the wounded until she herself was killed. Barda was one of 378 people murdered at the festival, and one of approximately 1,200 killed overall in the Oct. 7 attacks.

According to his sister Lihi, Asraf started to drive toward Re’im to save his love once the attacks commenced, “until he realized there was no one left to save and they turned him back halfway.”

His mother, Bracha, told the Israeli news site Walla that Asraf had difficulty coping with his girlfriend’s death in the nearly three years since the massacre.

“A little while ago, I saw him looking sad and asked what was wrong. He said, ‘Mom, I’m sad. It’s hard for me without Liron. I miss her. There’s no one who can replace her, no one to cheer me up.’ We felt he was struggling deeply without her.”

TRENDING ARTICLES

exclusive

Christian PA Fired Over Transgender Referrals, Pronouns Wins $410K Settlement as Hospital Adopts New Policy

Tyler O’Neil

opinion

Victor Davis Hanson: The Socialist Monster Awakens

Victor Davis Hanson

exclusive

‘It Has Destroyed Our Lives’: Christian Parents Sue Over Accusation They Caused ‘Mental Injury’ for Refusing to ‘Affirm’ Daughter’s Transgender Identity

Tyler O’Neil

Just days ago, Asraf attended his brother’s wedding. Their sister Lihi surmises he felt strongly Barda’s absence. “He apparently started to feel lonely,” she told Walla, as translated by The Jerusalem Post.

“His best friend was murdered in NOVA. He has a tattoo of her. She was a part of his soul. At the groom’s celebration, there was dancing and a Shabbat reception with a singer; it was magical. We were at the peak of the family’s life.”

Asraf left the family, and at first Lihi thought he’d “gone to be alone and think like he usually does.” But after two hours had passed, she and her older sister set out to look for him. “First in the most logical places,” she recounted. “And then we went to check Liron’s grave. He loved talking there and being with her.”

There, Lihi says, they found Asraf’s body. “I knew it was the end.”