Lior Bar “Barli” Nakmuli, 27, was murdered by terrorists from the Palestinian group Hamas during the Supernova music festival on October 7.
Initially considered missing, his family was only informed of the discovery of his body after three days.
Lior was buried in Rehovot on October 12. He leaves behind his parents, Nurit and Yossi.
Born in Mazkeret Batya, he moved with his mother at the age of 8 to the nearby town of Shoham, where he attended school as well as to Givatayim, according to a eulogy published by authorities.
On October 7, 2004, he was 8 years old when terrorists attacked the Taba Hilton hotel in Sinai, where he was vacationing with his father. 34 people, including 13 Israelis, were murdered that day. Lior and his father survived.
Nineteen years later, on the same date, Lior was assassinated.
Tall, he played a lot of basketball in his youth, notably participating in tournaments abroad and, later, even becoming the team’s coach. During his compulsory military service, Lior served as a driver in the 16th Infantry Brigade.
Once demobilized, he worked in several restaurants to save money for his “big trip”, which he spent traveling around South America – where he developed a taste for trance music and festivals.
Upon returning to Israel, Lior decided to pursue a professional culinary career and worked several jobs in the restaurant industry. He always enjoyed entertaining and cooking for friends and family and, according to his family, he planned to pursue culinary studies in Paris.
Before his assassination, Lior worked as a cook at ‘a’ restaurant in Tel Aviv. The restaurant’s chef, Yuval Ben Neriah, told the daily The Marker that four of his employees were at the Supernova festival, but only Lior was murdered.
“He was only 27, he worked for me for two years,” he said. “His last position was on the grill at ‘a’. He was an amazing guy with a big smile. » Ben Neriah explained that in honor of Lior, he transformed his restaurants into central kitchens, even going so far as to obtain kosher certification, to prepare thousands of free meals for soldiers and evacuees. “In each meal, we slip a postcard dedicated to the memory of Bar Lior. »
His friends also started a beer and wine bar, named Barli, in the town of Yavne in his honor, and began selling a T-shirt online featuring his favorite flower, the sunflower, and a phrase that he had recently tattooed: “Don’t forget to breathe”.
Doron Magali, a close friend, wrote on Instagram: “Barli was my best friend. From the first moment. A connection so fast and so strong that it seemed inconceivable to me. »
Doron said they met on a trip to South America, “and he adopted me into his group without asking anyone. ‘Don’t worry, you’re with me.’ And I was really with him. We had become inseparable from that day until that Black Saturday.”
Losing Lior, she wrote, “is the worst thing I could imagine, but I never imagined it could happen…. Barli was the first person I messaged when something happened to me. The first person I called, the first who helped me. And suddenly he’s no longer there. »
To read other tributes about the victims of the Hamas massacres of 10/7/2023 and the war that followed, click here.
