Fahri Yıldız was born in 1967 in a village of Besni District, Adıyaman as the oldest of the five brothers. Losing his father when he was a child, Yıldız assumed the responsibility of the provider of the family by working in early ages. An orphan himself, Yıldız joined the Gaza flotilla to bring humanitarian aid to orphans in Palestine. He was working as a fireman at the fire department of Adıyaman Municipality and owned a small confectionery workshop. With the money he earned from the workshop he financed certain charity activities. To support the IHH-led “Palestine Our Route, Humanitarian Aid Our Load” campaign he organized a fund-raising fair in Adıyaman and collected funds for the flotilla. 

Electrical works, search-rescue, and fire fighting were the fields Fahri Yıldız had noted he could offer help with in the flotilla application form. Yıldız met his close friends and relatives and asked them for forgiveness before setting out. The family portrait he took before leaving became his last photograph.

While getting on the bus that would take him from Adıyaman to Antalya, he asked his mother to hug him tightly and asked her for forgiveness. Yıldız, who was killed in the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara boat, left behind four sons.