Israel Hayom cameraman, Yaniv Zohar (54), was murdered on Saturday morning in the brutal Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, along with his wife and two daughters.
His sister Sivan said goodbye with great pain, "My amazing and beloved brother Yaniv, my beloved sister-in-law Yasmin, my pure and beloved nieces Keshet and Tchelet were murdered in Nahal Oz on Shabbat." Yaniv's son was saved because he went out for a morning run and when the attack began, he took shelter in another house on the kibbutz, thus his life was saved.
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"Yaniv Zohar was a talented man. He loved his country, he served in the Nachal Brigade. He loved Nahal Oz, he loved the environment. When he worked at the AP news agency he showed the whole world all the escalations that happened here through the lens of his camera until he went to work at Israel Hayom," his close friend, photographer Yehuda Peretz, who worked closely with Yaniv for two decades, said. Yaniv was "a huge man with a huge heart. He loved his girls, he loved his wife, and he loved his son," Peretz added.
Yaniv was the first media person to arrive at the scene of Gilad Schalit's kidnapping in 2006, and a year earlier he covered the Disengagement Plan extensively. He was a great friend, a devoted father, a man of heart and giving.
With his moderate temperament, Yaniv succeeded in combining competitiveness between various media channels, and collegiality and true friendship. He was always chasing after the next frame, despite the difficult scenes he captured. He always came to the rescue in the area of the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip, which he knew like the back of his hand, and with his camera on the other shoulder.
Today Israel Hayom is bidding farewell to a rare professional, an authority on photography, and extends its sincere wishes to Yaniv's family.
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