“Niv Became a Symbol Because of How She Chose to Fight and Live,” Says the Mother of the Young Woman Who Touched an Entire Nation

She fought like a lioness, drew tens of thousands to her side and became a symbol of faith and devotion to life, even in the hardest moments. A week after the death of Niv Hazaan Avitan at the age of 29, her mother Gali speaks in her first interview about the enormous emptiness left at home after the mourners left, the final wish at the beach that was fulfilled against all odds, and the book she wrote that became her daughter’s testament: “Niv finished her journey here, now it is my turn to continue her light.” Hagar Amgar, N12. Published: 11.06.26, 06:24

The story of Niv Hazaan Avitan, who suffered for more than three years from a rare and aggressive cervical cancer and died about a week ago at the age of 29, touched the hearts of many Israelis. Today, Thursday, her mother Gali speaks for the first time about the immense pain and emptiness she left behind, the final days beside her daughter, the thousands who came to console the family, and the book she wrote that became her daughter’s testament. “Honestly? I have no idea how you go on from here,” Gali begins. “A moment ago I was a mother fighting for my daughter with all my strength, and suddenly... silence. After thousands of people were here until late at night during the shiva, everyone suddenly went home and I was left in my house, feeling like a stranger in it. I walk between the rooms and look for her, waiting to hear her voice calling me Mom.”

The final wish

“A week before Niv died, I asked her if there was anything she wanted and she answered that she wanted to go home. At the same time, her husband Yam asked her which beach she would want to reach, and she immediately answered Sdot Yam. It was not an easy task at all because Niv could no longer get onto a regular ambulance stretcher, but Sheba Medical Center stepped in wholeheartedly to fulfill her request. They provided us with the hospital’s transport vehicle and at the same time funded a private ambulance that drove behind it, so we could fulfill Niv’s wish. I will never forget that moment, the humanity and everyone’s willingness to help. My cousin arranged entry permission for us into Kibbutz Sdot Yam and we managed to get right up to the water. Niv sat facing the sea she loved so much and from there we took her home for two nights. Yam and I are so glad we did not give up and that we fulfilled that request for her. Less than a week later, my Niv died.”

“The deterioration of Niv was hard and cruel. Every day that passed I stood and looked at her while holding her hand, and quietly asked myself how much further this could go?”

“I believed to the end. I believed Niv’s story would end differently and that there would be a miracle here, and I believed that the Creator of the world would surprise us all. But there came a point when my eyes started to see things my heart refused to accept. The deterioration of Niv was hard and cruel. Every day that passed I stood and looked at her while holding her hand, and quietly asked myself how much further this could go? How much more pain? How much more suffering? How could my daughter, who suffered so much for three years, still keep going through more and more?

“Our role is to protect our children. To fight for them, to take their pain away if only we could. And in those last days, for the first time in my life, I stood helpless. I could not take her pain away and I could not save her.”

Gali describes the endless sense of loss and her desire to draw whatever remains from the beloved daughter: “I touch her clothes, smell them, and suddenly every small thing left of her takes on a different meaning. I hold her things as if through them I can feel her a little more. As if if I just hold them tightly enough, she will walk through the door and say to me, Mom, what are you doing? But the door does not open and that silence breaks me every time anew.”

“There is an emptiness that cannot be explained in words, a pain with no name. No mother in the world is supposed to know what it feels like to wake up in the morning without her child, and I still cannot accept that my Niv is gone and I beg someone to wake me from this nightmare. This is a reality I still cannot process and I do not know how to go on. I only know that I ask the Creator of the world for strength to get through one more day. I wanted the ground to swallow me together with her. When Niv was buried, I felt that I was buried too. It is inhuman pain, impossible to describe.”

“A rabbi came to the shiva and said a sentence that has not left my mind: ‘Niv managed to do what great rabbis do not manage to do even in 20 years.’ That did not surprise me either. If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that Niv left a mark on this world that cannot be erased.”

“She was light and people felt it”

“Thousands of people came to the shiva, most of them you do not know. Niv touched tens of thousands who did not know her personally. What do you think about that?”

“The truth? Even in the deepest pain of my life, there are moments when I just stand and cry from emotion. Thousands of people came to the shiva from all over the country, religious, secular, young, old. People we had never met, people came with pictures of Niv, with stories, with tears, with tattoos of ‘And you shall choose life.’ With the feeling that they had lost someone who was part of their lives.”

“I looked at all of this and was not surprised, I knew who Niv was. I was blessed to be her mother for 29 years, blessed to know her huge heart, her modesty, sensitivity, generosity, smile and her ability to see every person. Niv never sought publicity or for people to talk about her, she was simply light and people felt it. A rabbi came to the shiva and said a sentence that has not left my mind: ‘Niv managed to do what great rabbis do not manage to do even in 20 years.’ That did not surprise me either. If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that Niv left a mark on this world that cannot be erased. And the most moving thing? She did not become a symbol because of how she died, Niv became a symbol because of how she lived and faced life.”

For three years Gali did not leave her daughter for a moment. She fought bureaucracy, organized mass prayers, and raised millions of shekels for advanced treatments, all in order to save her daughter.

“I fought for her with all my strength, there was nowhere in the world we did not go, no doctor we did not speak to. There was no prayer I did not pray and no effort I did not make. I promised her she would be healthy, that Mom was here and that everything would be okay, and she believed me. And even today I ask myself whether I did enough, whether I missed something. And I know people say to me that I fought like a lioness. But my heart will always keep asking questions.”

“The death took my daughter, but not the mission”

“After the struggle and your devotion to Niv throughout the illness, you are continuing to act to memorialize her. Tell me about the plans.”

“The moment my Niv closed her eyes, one thing was clear to me, my Niv would never be forgotten. I will tell about her and continue her path. I will keep spreading her goodness, faith and light, and the phrase so closely identified with her, ‘And you shall choose life.’ I want every girl, every mother, every person going through a crisis, to know Niv. Not בגלל the illness and suffering she went through, but because of who she was and how she fought and did not give up for a moment.”

“I intend to continue the lecture and publish the book I wrote. To establish projects in her memory. To lecture, write, embrace and strengthen people. And if there is one thing my daughter taught me in these three years, it is that you can go through hell and still choose life. I promise you, my Nivi, with all my heart and all my soul, that I will continue you. I will make sure people know who Niv Haya was. I know one thing for sure, death took my daughter, but it will not take her mission from me. Because she may have finished her journey here, but I am beginning mine through her.”

“The journey I did not choose” | Photo: Tzameret Publishing

The book that became a testament

“When I started writing, I did not think at all that I would publish a book. I did it to breathe, I wrote in the middle of the night and in hospitals. I wrote out of fear and also faith because I wanted to leave my children something from me. Niv knew I was writing and sometimes she would ask me to read to her, she was so supportive and would say to me: ‘Mom, this book has to come out.’ She believed in me more than I believed in myself. Niv and my Ron are my inspiration and the reason I started writing, this book is dedicated to them. It is a book by a mother who did not give up, a book about faith and falls and the choice to rise again, even in moments when it seems there is no air to breathe. After that, the lecture was born too. All I wanted was to give people strength, to give perspective, to strengthen and show that even from the darkest darkness you can find faith. The first person who heard my lecture was Niv, I will never forget that moment: she was lying on the sofa in the living room, weak and in pain, I read the lecture to her and she cried with emotion, and said: ‘Mom, I know who you are and I know what you can give people. Just as you do for me, do it for others too.’ Those words are engraved on my heart. And I have my son Ron, who cares for me so much and does not leave me for a moment. He keeps saying to me, Mom, you and I are one fist. We will cry, mourn and rise together, and we have another home... we will be at Nivi’s a lot.

“My Niv managed to touch the heart of an entire nation while she was here, so I promise her with all my heart and all my soul that from here on too I will continue to make the world know my Niv Haya. Because there are people who leave the world and there are souls that remain living in it forever.”