In a tragic turn of fate, a 51-year-old Israeli father of five died while stranded in Ethiopia, waiting to be evacuated. Mulu Brehiya had gone to visit his ailing sister, his family said, never dreaming it would come to this. The Beersheba resident called his wife when his medication ran out, telling her he felt unwell and wanted to say goodbye in case he didn’t make it.

Brehiya collapsed in Addis Ababa 48 hours before his Israir evacuation flight was scheduled to depart. Volunteers working at the emergency command center set up by Israel took him to the hospital and stayed with him until he died. His wife, who works at Soroka Medical Center, pleaded for help in returning his body to Israel.

“I want them to urgently help me bring the body back, to help us say goodbye to him,” she said. “We are broken by what happened. We have five children. We never thought he would die like this. Please help me.”

Brehiya is survived by his wife and five children, two of whom are currently serving as combat soldiers in the IDF.

“When my father left, he was completely fine,” Brehiya’s son, Yitzhak, said in an interview. “He went to visit his sick sister.” Upon hearing from him that his medication had run out, “we turned the world upside down in recent days trying to bring him back, but unfortunately it did not succeed. It is very sad that this is how his life ended. We did not believe he would reach this state.”

Brehiya was one among hundreds of Israelis stranded in Ethiopia after the war broke out. He had gone to visit his sister before the war and was waiting to be evacuated. A planeload of 150 passengers arrived in Israel on March 18, and a second planeload is expected to depart next week Wednesday. Brehiya was supposed to travel back to Israel on the second flight.