As the extent of the attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7 became apparent, a sense of fear and terror quickly spread across the world.
Those with family and friends in the country waited anxiously as 1,400 bodies were identified. It was the worst assault on civilians in the country’s history and has prompted retaliatory strikes that have killed more than 3,000 people.
At least 11 of Hamas’s victims held British citizenship. Several other Britons are missing, some feared dead and others potentially being held as hostages in Gaza. Here we profile the British citizens known to have died in the violence in Israel.
Yonatan Rapoport
Known to friends as Yoni, Rapoport was a die-hard Manchester United fan who was excited about taking his young son to watch the team play for the first time next month.
Rapoport was killed when militants ambushed Kibbutz Be’eri, five miles from Gaza, where he lived with his children, Yosefi and Aluma.
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Relatives believe the gardener saved his children when he told them to hide under the bed as Hamas gunmen entered the home. He was taken and killed.
Born in Newport on the Isle of Wight, Rapoport returned regularly to see family and watch Manchester United. His brother Adam Rapoport told The Times: “I will never understand the hatred and violence of Hamas.”
His former partner Ola Darya Zeltser, who also lived in the kibbutz, questioned where IDF forces were on social media as the attack unfolded.
The following day she said she and her children had made it to safety, praying that Rapoport would be found safe.
In an online tribute, his friend Shira Whitman described Rapoport as a “beautiful, humble and brave man”.
Roi Popplewell, 54
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Popplewell was shot dead behind his home in Kibbutz Nirim after the area was stormed by Hamas militants. Other members of his family are feared to have been taken hostage.
His sister Ayelet Svatitzky, 46, said that she had been taunted by the attackers, who sent her pictures of her family before kidnapping them. The family is originally from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, but has long lived in Israel.
Svatitzky said that Hamas gunmen used a phone belonging to her mother Channah Peri, 79, to take pictures of her and her other brother Nadav Popplewell, 51.
Sitting in Peri’s living room, the picture was captioned “Hamas”. Roi Popplewell was shot dead beside his house in a different neighbourhood. Nadav Popplewell and Peri have not been seen since. Svatitzky said she and her brothers are British citizens.
Nathanel Young, 20
Young finished his training with the Israel defence forces weeks before the assault and had been deployed at the Gazan border. As the frequency of Hamas rocket fire increased on the morning of the attacks, the corporal’s 30-strong Golan 13 Brigade was overwhelmed.
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He had grown up as the youngest of five siblings in Southgate, north London, attending the Jewish Free School. A keen DJ, Young moved to Israel as a teenager, joining three of his siblings. From a young age he had harboured the desire to “play an important role in defending his country”, relatives said.
At Young’s funeral on Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery, mourners including his parents had to lie on the ground when an air-raid siren went off. In her eulogy, his sister Gaby Shalev, 38, referred to Young as “my hero little brother”.
Bernard Cowan, 57
Cowan first left his home in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, at the age of 17 for a six-month tour of Israel. After returning to Scotland, where he was unwilling to join the family business, he soon made his way back to Israel and never left.
During his military service Cowan was posted to Kibbutz Sufa, five miles from Gaza, falling in love with the community that he would soon call home. It was there he met his wife Margaret, an English teacher. They had three children and two grandchildren, and Cowan was known in the kibbutz for his barbecues and collection of Starbucks mugs.
When the alarm was raised on the morning of the Hamas attacks, Cowan and his wife retreated to their safe room but he decided to leave and walked to their kitchen. It was then that passing gunmen are believed to have seen him and shot him dead.
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Cowan worked as a gardener and at a local factory, and enjoyed diving in his spare time. His brother Colin said: “He was the kindest, most generous person you would ever meet, and would go out of his way to help others. We are all heartbroken.”
Jake Marlowe, 26
Marlowe, who grew up in London and moved to Israel in 2021, was working as a security guard at the Supernova festival when Hamas descended on paramotors and began shooting.
He had called his mother at 4.30am to report rocket fire, then messaged an hour later to say that he loved her. After days in limbo the carpenter’s parents — Lisa and Michael, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire — confirmed that he had been found dead. “We are heartbroken,” they said.
Marlowe, a former pupil at the Jewish Free School in north London, was a talented drummer and bassist who toured internationally with his hardcore punk band Desolated. He moved to Israel to learn more about his roots while harbouring concerns about a rise in antisemitism in Britain.
Friends described how “Gentle Jake” was thriving after moving to Israel, where he largely worked as a carpenter, making additional money working in security at events. He was buried in London on Tuesday, draped in the Israeli flag.
Daniel Darlington, 33
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Relatives said that Darlington, from Didsbury on the outskirts of Manchester, was murdered when Hamas stormed the kibbutz Nir Oz. The photographer, whose mother was from Israel, was travelling with his German friend Carolin Bohl. Before his trip Darlington said online that he was “going home”. The pair documented their travels with images of riding bicycles, laughing, cooking and listening to the call to prayer from the nearby Gazan border.
His sister Shelley said that Darlington, a former student at North Cheshire Jewish Primary School in Cheadle and Manchester Metropolitan University who lived in Berlin, had been due to leave for Tel Aviv on the day before the attack.
He and Bohl decided to stay for another day to explore the kibbutz, just over a mile from the Gazan border. Friends said that the pair had been in a bunker during the attack. Shelley Darlington said that she was in “indescribable pain” after learning of her brother’s death.
Benjamin Trakeniski, 32
The British-Israeli soldier was off duty at home in Tel Aviv when the attacks unfolded. Concerned about the news, he and colleagues travelled to their base before making their way to Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel, which suffered some of the worst violence.
Trakeniski, known as Benji, had helped to assist residents in the kibbutz before he was killed. His sister Sharon said that her brother had died saving “dozens of lives”, referring to him as a hero.
The former student at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, who was in the seventh brigade of the IDF, Trakeniski was due to marry his fiancée, an Israeli tattoo artist called Rotem, in April.
At his funeral last week, Trakeniski’s mother, Liz Bennett, who is from London, described his caring nature. “You cared for your frail grandparents with respect and dignity and you were ever conscious of soldiers’ needs,” she said. “Benji, thank you for the honour of letting you be my son.”
Bennett told The Daily Telegraph that the major “loved all things British” and would regularly travel to the UK to see family and friends. She said: “As a mother, I am furious about the situation he was put in, but I am also extremely proud of him. I am very proud of what he has done — he has saved lives and I know so many people are so appreciative of that.”
Lianne Sharabi, 48
Sharabi travelled to Israel from her home in Bristol to volunteer on a kibbutz at the age of 19 and never returned.
She met her Israeli husband Eli, 51, and the pair had two daughters, Yahel, 13, and Noiya, 16. They grew up in Kibbutz Be’eri, which was regarded as one of the most fortified in Israel.
In phone calls and messages, Lianne expressed her fears on the morning of the attack as the family took shelter in their property’s safe room.
Amid gunfire and grenade explosions, she said that voices outside were shouting “Die Israel”. The messages stopped and it was days before the family received confirmation of her death.
In a statement, relatives in Britain said: “Our Lianne was the light of our family’s life. She had a wonderful caring nature. She was a wonderful mother to Noiya and Yahel and a great support for Eli. Her love for her parents and the rest of the family here was always apparent. We will miss our girl to the end of our days and keep her in our hearts forever, tucked away with the fondest memories of her 48 years. Goodnight, sleep tight sweetheart.”
Raz Matalon, her brother-in-law, said that Sharabi was unique in their Israeli family for always maintaining a British sense of humour.
Yahel and Noiya Sharabi, 13 and 16
Talking at a mile a minute, Yahel was remembered as the beating heart of her family by relatives.
Although born in Israel, she and her older sister, Noiya, also had British citizenship and cherished their visits to the UK, made at least once a year. Their favourite time to visit was in December. “The joy on their faces as they ripped open gifts was wonderful,” relatives said.
Her British grandparents and uncles travelled to Kibbutz Be’eri in July when Yahel celebrated her bat mitzvah in what was remembered as a joyous event for the family.
Her family said in a statement: “A bundle of unbridled energy and joy, with a cheekiness that you could not help but smile at and a brain which was sharp as a tack. Full of adventure and mischief, we will forever miss her, but are grateful for the light she brought into our lives in the too short time she was with us.”
When Noiya’s death was confirmed on October 22, the family said: “Noiya was clever, sensitive, fun and full of life — her smile lit up the room like a beacon. She “embraced every opportunity to help others, particularly those less fortunate than her, and was a gifted student and linguist. Most importantly, she was an amazing granddaughter, cousin and niece. We are heartbroken she is gone, but for ever grateful she was here.”
Yosef Guedalia
A British-Israeli soldier died while trying to rescue others from Hamas terrorists during the attacks of October 7.
Yosef Malachi Guedalia, 22, saved at least one seriously wounded civilian from Kfar Aza before repeatedly returning to the besieged kibbutz to help more of those under fire, his family told The Times.
The soldier’s father, David Guedailia, 54, said that he dragged the wounded into a waiting car. David believes his son rescued at least three people, one of whom was badly injured. “He took them out of Kfar Aza and then he went back additional times to continue,” the father said.
Guedalia, whose mother Dina is British, went back and forth the whole morning, the family said, according to soldiers who were with him at the time and a video.
But Guedalia was killed by the terrorists, who then tried to kidnap his body, his bereaved family said.
“He fought until his last breath and they killed him. We were fortunate that we could bury him and mourn him,” his father said.
