Zehava Haker, 68, and her husband Ze’ev Haker, 72, were slain in Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas invasion of October 7.
The Hackers were among 15 civilians taken hostage by Hamas terrorists inside the Be’eri home of Pessi Cohen on that Saturday. The terrorists attempted to use the civilians as pawns to negotiate with Israeli security forces, aiming to take the hostages to Gaza and secure themselves safe passage.
Survivors said the terrorists positioned the hostages between themselves and the IDF soldiers, and after hours holed up inside, the IDF fired tank shells at the building and soldiers advanced toward the terrorists who were barricaded inside. Only one of the hostages emerged alive (another had exited earlier while being used as a human shield). In an in-depth probe published months later, the IDF said that many of the hostages were apparently killed by gunfire.
For 11 days after the attack the Haker family did not know of Ze’ev and Zehava’s fate, until their bodies were finally identified.
They were buried in Kibbutz Kvutzat Shiller on October 19. The couple are survived by their three children, Limor, Dvir and Hagay, and 11 grandchildren.
Zehava was born in Givatayim and came by herself to the kibbutz at age 9 in the 1960s, while Ze’ev was born in Gan Yoshiya and later moved with his family to Tkuma in the south, according to a kibbutz eulogy.
The couple met while they were both working on Kibbutz Na’aran in the Jordan Valley, and fell rapidly in love, marrying not long after in 1978 and settling down in Be’eri, where their three children were born. Zehava worked in many jobs on the kibbutz, including at the printing house and in education. Ze’ev spent years as the kibbutz’s head of agriculture, where he helped grow potatoes, wheat, peanuts, corn, peas and gladioli until his retirement at age 70.
Zehava’s friend, Naomi Ilan, wrote online about how, “from a difficult and lonely childhood, you built yourself with your own two hands. Your strengths as a person, as a woman, always inspired endless admiration in me.”
“You built a good and supportive relationship with Ze’ev and you later taught yourself to be a mom, your children blossomed and were blessed with a loving, warm and supportive family. Later of course you were also a wonderful grandmother to your grandchildren. You were an optimistic, cheerful woman, who radiated kindness to those around you.”
In a eulogy written by Be’eri’s agricultural branch, Ze’ev was remembered for his decades of working “with endless professionalism” in the wheat fields and later with potatoes.
“You became a professional, an autodidact” whose studies included a trip to Australia to learn new techniques. “You always loved the quiet work out in the field, you didn’t speak much, a quiet and modest man, a dedicated family man who loved his children, Zehava and his grandchildren.”
Their son, Hagay, wrote on Facebook in April about the “first wheat season without Dad.”
“In a past life, in this season, Dad would already be running around the field after every harvester and combine, checking and making sure not a single grain was left in the field,” he wrote. “This is the first season that you weren’t by my side, from preparing the fields to sowing until the harvest… Sadly this year we sowed with tears and sadness and we also harvested with tears and sadness.”
“Everyone who knew you couldn’t help but shed a tear in the field, but you should know that we still sowed and harvested,” he added. “Mom and Dad, I hope you can see the harvested wheat fields from above. This year I dedicate the wheat season to you. I love you and miss you.”
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