Igor Pibnev killed 13 terrorists on October 7th – Today he killed himself

In the predawn stillness of October 7, 2023, Senior Staff Sergeant Igor Pibnev stood watch at Hebron’s police station, a routine shift in a land where tension is a constant hum. Then the sirens wailed, rockets streaked across the sky, and Israel’s world shattered.

For Pibnev, a patrol officer from the border village of Yated, the day became a solitary sprint through chaos to reach his wife and three daughters, stranded in a community under siege. His story, recounted in a January 2024 police interview and revisited now, was a hymn to resilience, a father’s defiance of despair on Israel’s grimmest day.

Today, the pain of what he had seen got to much for him and he tragically ended his life.

This is his story:

As Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, Pibnev received a message from his wife about frequent alarms, which was unusual. He told her to stay calm and enter the safe room. After learning that terrorists had infiltrated nearby areas like Sderot, he realized the severity of the situation in the Gaza Envelope. He informed his officer that he was heading home to protect his family. Pibnev humbly stated, "I’m not a hero; I did what any policeman would do."

Pibnev’s commanders released him from duty, his mind racing to Yated, near Egypt’s border, where his family huddled without electricity or phone lines.`

“I ran movies in my head,” Pibnev told i24NEWS, “about my family, my friends securing the Nova festival.”

“When I heard what was happening in Kibbutz Be’eri,” he recalled, “I saw myself left without a wife, without children.” Yet, optimism, stubborn and unyielding, propelled him forward.

Driving toward Yated, he spotted a suspicious white vehicle and his instincts kicked in. Green headbands marked the occupants as terrorists. He pulled over, fired, and neutralized them, part of the 13 he would eliminate that day. “It was easy to identify them,” he said. Although he was trained for such scenarios, he was stunned by the sheer volume of attackers.

Pibnev, a lone figure in a police uniform, confronted the unimaginable: wave after wave of attackers, each dispatched with precision born of training and resolve. His actions saved lives, though he spoke of them with the quiet pragmatism of a man who sees duty, not heroics. By the time he reached Yated, the air still screamed with sirens and rocket barrages.

The reunion with his family was a moment suspended in time. His daughters, startled by the sight of their father in a tactical vest, froze. Pibnev knelt, offering kisses and embraces. “I felt like I was getting married again,” he said, “like I was back in the delivery room for each of their births.” But duty called once more. He joined Yated’s rapid-response team, standing guard as rockets fell, a protector in a village on the edge.

Pibnev’s story, shared in a police interview with spokesperson Eli Levi, resonates beyond Yated’s dusty border. Yet, his words linger on the personal: the terror of losing his wife and daughters, the relief of their embrace. “The girls were scared,” he admitted, their innocence colliding with a father armored for battle.

Today, as Israel struggles with a war on seven separate fronts, hostage releases, reservists’ trauma, and global condemnation, Pibnev’s tale is a reminder of the human cost beneath the headlines.

As Pibnev returned to duty, his daughters’ faces etched in his mind, he carried forward a vow: to protect, to survive, to hold fast to love in a land where peace remains a distant song.

For this hero though, the journey is over. May he finally be at peace and may his memory be a blessing.

i24, Mako and YeshuvikNew contributed to this article.