A second funeral was held Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Aza for Nadav Goldstein-Almog, 48, and his daughter Yam, 17, who were murdered in the October 7 massacre. The two were initially buried in Shefayim but have now been brought back to their home soil.
Friends from Nadav’s triathlon team, Etgarit Otef Aza, carried his coffin wearing their team uniforms. On the day of the attack, Hamas gunmen killed Nadav and Yam and abducted the rest of the family — mother Chen and children Agam, Gal and Tal — who later returned from captivity in Gaza.
Agam, 21, who survived months in captivity, delivered an emotional eulogy. “This morning we accompanied you from Shefayim,” she said. “Suddenly you felt so close, and I wanted to hug you. In Kfar Aza we lived as a big family, and now I am left with two holes in my heart — of my father and sister, murdered before my eyes.” She recalled imagining, while in Gaza, what she would write on their gravestones and even hoping for a miracle that they had somehow survived.
Chen, Nadav’s widow and Yam’s mother, said: “Yam, my beloved firstborn. Nadav, my love. When we were held captive in Gaza, we heard the radio announcer say, ‘We are sorry for Nadav and Yam.’ That was the final confirmation that you were gone. I never imagined you had been buried in Shefayim.” She explained that the temporary burial there was part of the reality of Oct. 7, when funerals in Kfar Aza were impossible.
“I stand here today with a heavy heart, agreeing to this painful, unnatural step — to bury Nadav and Yam for a second time in Kfar Aza,” Chen said. “At least now they rest alongside our best, who were murdered and fell that day.”
Nadav’s mother, Vered, added, “It is so ironic that you are coming home before us. The house will again be colorful and bright, but also sad.” She praised Chen and the surviving children for their resilience after captivity, saying they embodied the possibility of gradual healing.