October 7 · Personal story
Alon Lulu Shamriz
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kfar Aza kibbutz, southern Israel
Current outcome
Returned for burial · December 15, 2023
Killed by Israeli troops in Shejaiya on December 15, 2023, after approaching them with two fellow hostages.
01
Student, brother, football fan
Alon Shamriz grew up in Kfar Aza and was 26 in 2023. His father, Avi, described him as a computer-engineering student who also managed logistics at the family factory. Alon came to the family home every day to eat and sit with them. He liked basketball and soccer and followed Barcelona and Argentina’s national team. Alon belonged to the Eshel group at Kfar Aza and studied at Sha’ar HaNegev High School. Basketball stayed with him: he played on the local team and supported Maccabi Tel Aviv. He enlisted in the IDF Engineering Corps in 2016 and, after selection and training, served in the Yahalom Unit. After military service he helped his brother establish a business. In 2022 he traveled in South America; on returning, he planned his future, enrolled in computer engineering and kept playing basketball.
02
Taken from his home community
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attackers entered Kfar Aza. Alon was abducted from the kibbutz and taken to Gaza. His family spent the following weeks seeking news of him; his father later told CNN that they did not initially know where Alon had been taken. His brother Ido messaged him, “You’re strong, I love you.” Alon answered another brother, Yonatan, with a red heart. Contact then stopped. For two weeks the family considered him missing; they were told he had been taken to Gaza two weeks later.
03
Held with fellow hostages
The Yahalom Foundation account says Alon was first held in tunnels with Yotam Haim and Samar Talalka, then moved to an abandoned building in Shejaiya. After escaping their captors, the three tried to reach Israeli forces. Yotam’s family remembered Alon singing while Yotam tapped rhythms on the floor, helping the two sustain each other during captivity.
04
The December 15 approach
On December 14, drone footage recorded “SOS” and “Help, 3 hostages” on a building about 200 meters from the later shooting site. On December 15, the IDF inquiry says troops mistook three shirtless men, one carrying a makeshift white flag, for a threat and opened fire. Two were killed in that first firing; the third ran to a nearby building and was killed after coming out when called. The Yahalom Foundation records that Alon was mistakenly shot and killed by IDF fire in this encounter.
05
Remembered by his family
Alon’s father Avi spoke about the son who came home each day and shared meals and conversation with his family. The Times of Israel reported that Alon was buried at Kibbutz Shefayim on December 17, 2023, two days after he was killed.