Lucille Gershevitz, a 29-year-old Filipina who moved to Israel to be with the man she loved, was killed on Saturday night alongside her husband Dima (42), and his parents Vladimir (73) and Lena (68), when an Iranian ballistic missile struck their residential building in Haifa, causing three floors to collapse.
Before the victims’ names were released, major Israeli media misidentified Lucille as “המטפלת שלהם” — the family’s caretaker. She was not. She was Dima’s wife.
The Attack#
The missile struck the six-story building during an Iranian barrage on the evening of April 5 as part of Operation Roaring Lion. According to investigators, the missile’s warhead did not detonate — instead, the projectile broke apart in the air, causing Israeli interceptors to miss as its trajectory changed. A section of the missile slammed into the building, and the sheer force of impact brought down the lower three floors.
The Gershevitz family lived on the bottom floor. Their nearest safe room was outside the building, requiring them to exit and climb to an external shelter. Vladimir and Lena, both elderly, could not make it in time. The family sheltered in the stairwell instead.
Rescue teams from the Home Front Command and the elite Lehava unit worked through the night, constructing a tunnel through unstable debris to reach the trapped family. All four bodies were recovered after an 18-hour search on Monday morning. Four other people were injured in the strike, including an 82-year-old man who underwent surgery and a 10-month-old baby with a head injury.
The Gershevitz Family#
Vladimir (73) and Lena (68) immigrated to Israel from Kyiv. Vladimir had been in a prolonged hospital stay at Rambam Medical Center and was discharged just hours before the attack — his son Dima drove him home to Haifa that same day. Lena, born Ostrovsky, was a beloved voice development teacher at the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio in Jerusalem, where she nurtured generations of actors over three decades. Israel’s actors’ union issued a tribute: “For thirty years, Lena cultivated generations of actors with devotion, professionalism, and above all, great love for the profession and her students.”
Dima (42) was their only child. A software engineer at JFrog for nine years, he studied at the Technion in Haifa and later at Reichman University in Herzliya, where he lived with Lucille. A family friend described him as “an exceptional person — from childhood he stood out as a gifted child, a little genius.” He spoke eleven languages, played piano at a high level, painted, and loved cooking. “He brought creativity and excellence to everything he touched.”
Lucille (29) was from the Philippines. She met Dima while he was traveling in her home country. They married in April 2024. For years, she was apprehensive about moving to Israel, but ultimately chose to follow Dima. She arrived just months ago to build a life with him and worked at a kindergarten. A family friend said through tears: “Lucille was afraid to come to Israel, but she went in the footsteps of their love. They dreamed of a family and children — dreams that will never be realized. She loved him in an extraordinary way.”
The family’s relatives said: “A family of beloved people with hearts of gold. They were always kind and pleasant to everyone they met. They loved life, culture, and travel. They left a mark of light everywhere they went and on everyone they met. We are heartbroken. Losing them is a terrible tragedy — not just for us, but for everyone who knew them.”
“The Caretaker”#
Before the victims’ identities were officially released, both Calcalist (archived) and Ynet (archived) described the four missing as “בני זוג מבוגרים, בנם בן ה-40 והמטפלת שלהם” — “an elderly couple, their son in his 40s, and their caretaker.” Ynet’s subtitle even read: “Grave concern for the lives of four — an elderly couple, their son, and a caretaker — trapped under the rubble.” The label spread in English too: StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy group with over 80,000 followers on its WhatsApp channel, repeated the description verbatim — “an elderly couple, their son, and their caregiver.” As of this writing, none of the three have corrected the error.
Lucille was not the family’s caretaker. She was their daughter-in-law — “כלתם,” as Ynet’s later profile correctly identified her. She worked at a kindergarten. She married their son. She was part of the family.
The reflexive assumption — young Filipina woman found in a household with elderly Israelis, therefore she must be the hired help — speaks to how Israeli society often sees Filipinas through a single lens. An estimated 30,000 Filipinos live and work in Israel, the majority as caregivers. But they are also spouses, parents, students, kindergarten teachers, and community members. Reducing every Filipina to the role of “caretaker” erases their individuality and the fullness of their lives.
The English-language press, notably Israel Hayom and TPS/israel.com, was vaguer, describing her as “his partner” and “a foreign national” — not wrong, given that names had not yet been released. But where vagueness is understandable before identities are confirmed, calling someone “the caretaker” is not vague — it is an active assumption, and it was wrong.
Filipino Lives Lost in Israel#
Lucille is the seventh Filipino killed in Israel since October 7, 2023 — and the third Filipina.
Five Filipinos were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023: Angelyn Aguirre, Loreta Alacre (49), Grace Cabrera, Paul Vincent Castelvi, and Sgt. Cydrick Garin, a Filipino-Israeli soldier. Israel honored all five during its 2024 Memorial Day ceremony.
On February 28, 2026, Mary Anne Velasquez de Vera (32), a caregiver from Pangasinan, was killed by an Iranian missile in Tel Aviv while helping her elderly patient reach a bomb shelter. She refused to leave the woman’s side. President Herzog called her a hero.
The contrast between de Vera’s story and Lucille’s is telling. De Vera was a caregiver, and her sacrifice was recognized and celebrated — in part because it fit the familiar narrative of the devoted Filipina caretaker. Lucille was a wife, a kindergarten worker, a woman who crossed the world for love. The media didn’t know what to make of her, so it defaulted to the only role it could imagine for a Filipina in Israel.
This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
Sources: Ynet, Israel Hayom, Calcalist, israel.com/TPS, Arutz Sheva, Amit Segal/Channel 12, GMA News
