Gideon Peri, 38 from the town of Kedumim in Samaria, was murdered on Sunday in a terror attack at the Baron industrial area near his hometown.
A Palestinian Arab employee at the industrial area attacked Peri with a hammer, stole his gun, and fled the scene.
Peri, a Kedumim native, was the manager of a factory in the Baron industrial area. He struggled with the terrorist but was severely injured and later in the evening succumbed to his injuries at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. He is survived by his wife, three children, parents, and siblings.
Peri served in the IDF as a communications officer and served on reserve duty in northern Israel and Gaza.
His friends say that he was a kind man. "Gideon funded and worked for many accessibility projects and to help the weak and less able, quietly and powerfully, that's how he worked.
"He was a great friend, outstandingly funny. He was the first to help anywhere. A true friend. Would come anywhere at any hour, solve any problem. He was talented, proactive, a dreamer, and a fighter," they added.
President Isaac Herzog commented: "Our hearts and thoughts this evening are with the family and loved ones of Gideon Peri OBM, the security guard who was murdered by a miscreant in the terror attack in the Baron industrial area in Samaria. I send support to our security forces who are working day and night to protect Israeli citizens in all areas and I know that they will bring the cursed murderer and those who sent him to justice."
IDF forces were called to the scene and are searching for the assailant.
Initially, it was reported that the terrorist was entrenched in the industrial area but security officials later said that he fled, possibly in a stolen vehicle with Israeli license plates.
The industrial area, as well as the town of Kedumim, were put on high alert due to a fear that the terrorist was still in the area. Kedumim residents have been ordered to remain in their homes.
Shirel Popkin, a United Hatzalah paramedic who was first to arrive at the scene, reported: "The victim is a man in his forties who has sustained severe head injuries. I administered initial medical treatment in the factory yard, assisted by an army doctor who evacuated him from the scene in an IDF armored vehicle towards an IDF intensive care ambulance that will transport him to the hospital.”