Former Pro Soccer Player Killed During Hamas Attack in Israel

Lior Asulin was celebrating his 43rd birthday at the time of his death.

By Brian Jones

Lior Asulin, a former professional soccer player from Israel, was killed during the Hamas attack in the country while celebrating his 43rd birthday. According to TMZ Sports, Asulin was partying at a "nature party" music festival at a resort near Kibbutz Re'im when gunmen opened fire. A survivor told Israel's Channel 12 she saw about 50 terrorists in military gear arrive in vans and began shooting at everyone. 

"They fired bursts, and we reached a point where everyone stopped their vehicles and started running," the survivor explained. "I went into a tree, a bush like this, and they just started spraying people. I saw masses of wounded people thrown around and I'm in a tree and trying to understand what's going on."

The Hapoel Tel Aviv soccer team released a statement on the death of Asulin. "Great sadness. After many hours in which he was identified as missing, it is now known that the club's former player, Lior Asulin, was killed by terrorists at a party in Ra'im," the statement said.

Eyal Lachman, the coach of the Israeli team Bnei Sakhnin, also reacted to the news. "A guy with a heart of gold, that was his most outstanding characteristic, they always said that his most outstanding characteristic was to give back, I saw that the most outstanding characteristic was to give his friends his soul, he said. "I heard yesterday that he was missing, the first thought that came to my mind was what a beautiful life he could have had and what a different life he spent at the end. Very sad, all the time he simply suffered."

Asulin began his pro soccer career in 1997 and played for multiple teams. He spent most of his career with Maccabi Herzliya and scored 38 goals in 218 appearances. He scored 88 goals in his career and won the 2004 Israeli Cup with Benei Sakhnin. 

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