The Israel Defense Forces announced Monday that they had identified the body of a volunteer medic, who left his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 to assist his neighbors during the Hamas attack.
Dolev Yehud, 35, was initially presumed to be a hostage, held inside Gaza. New information from the IDF, however, reveals that he was killed nearly eight months ago. Yehud, who volunteered with medic groups United Hatzala and Magen David Adom, told his pregnant wife to hide in their home while he entered the conflict zone.
"He told me to stay in the safe room, to be calm," Yehud's wife Sigi told the Times of Israel. "He asked me to stay calm and try to work on my breathing as much as I can."
Sigi gave birth to her fourth child - Dor - on October 16. She described the labor as "mentally difficult."
Jewish people, traditionally, do not name their children directly after loved ones - instead, they reuse initials. Sigi named her daughter Dor, in honor of her husband, hoping he would return safely to their family.
"I want him alive and I want him to know her and she needs to know her father and she needs to grow up with her father," she told the Times of Israel before Yehud was confirmed dead.
Sigi and her husband were childhood sweethearts, who had been together since they were 12.
"My life now is not a life, I'm missing half of it," she told the Times of Israel. "I don't have that much of a life now."
