A 94-year-old Israeli man died Tuesday after collapsing outside his apartment building in Ramat Gan, shortly after returning from a polling station where he had insisted on casting his ballot in Israel's election for the 26th Knesset.
Israel Kreis had been driven to the polling station by his daughter, Shirley, who told ynet that her father was determined to vote for Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the Yashar! party.
"Dad really wanted me to take him to vote for Eisenkot," she said. "I drove him to the polling station, and on the way back, as soon as he got out of the car, he collapsed and died at the entrance to the building."
"My dad was 94 when he died. I'm very glad he managed to vote. He's an example to all of us to go out and vote and exercise our democratic right," she added.
ZAKA, an Israeli volunteer emergency response and body recovery organization, said it received a report of an elderly man who had collapsed and died at the entrance to his residential building in Ramat Gan.
ZAKA volunteers Arieh Ben Menachem and Hazi Barzani, who responded to the scene, said the man had gone to vote with his daughter before collapsing on his return home.
A ZAKA ambulance at the scene
(Photo: Magen David Adom)
The organization said its volunteers were assisting the family and that a ZAKA ambulance was transporting Kreis's body to the cemetery ahead of his funeral. Shirley thanked the volunteers for their support.
Later Tuesday, after learning that Kreis had cast his ballot for him, Eisenkot called Shirley personally to offer his condolences to the family.