Partners of fallen soldiers share final memories of love cut short

Panel of partners of fallen soldiers (Srugim studio)

Three years after the terror attack and the outbreak of war, the Srugim studio hosted women who lost their partners in the fighting since October 7. Four hundred and twelve partners have been bereaved since the war began, these are just two stories among hundreds of loves severed in a single moment.

"We were two months before the wedding — my life changed in an instant"

Roni Bat Zion Kapach was engaged to Rav-Turai Yosef Chaim Revuach z"l, 19, from Kiryat Arba, Israel's youth taekwondo champion and a member of the national team. The two had known each other since age 14 and had been together for five years.

"He was the most perfect partner in the world, the most caring, he gave me everything," Roni recalled through tears. On the evening of Sukkot (October 7, 2025), after the holiday meal, the two went to visit a friend. "We knocked on the door, and when we entered there was a crazy boom. Yosef screamed in pain and I was sure I was imagining it. I tried to catch his gaze, I screamed at him 'stay with me.' Within moments many people arrived and I understood what had happened. They took him to the hospital, from there I went straight to interrogation, and since then my life has changed." Yosef was killed by gunfire from a childhood friend serving in the Border Police, in an incident under investigation by the Police Internal Investigations Department.

"He sent a selfie: 'What is this crappy song?' — and a day later he fell"

Maya Hadadi lost her partner, Samar Ido Afel z"l, 21, from Moshav Tzofit, a fighter in the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade. The two met during a year of service in the Golan Heights and became a couple. Ido, who was deeply connected to hiking and the desert, was wounded by shrapnel during the war but insisted on returning to fight in Gaza.

The day before he fell, Ido celebrated his 21st birthday. "I managed to steal a short conversation through his company commander, a fun and normal birthday conversation," Maya recounted. "His family dedicated a song to him on the radio, and thanks to that he had his phone. He turned it on to say thank you, laughed at the song 'Daddy's Boy' that his parents chose, and sent us a picture: 'Thank you very much, I love you but what is this crappy song?' That was our last chance to talk." The next day, on May 28, 2024, Ido was killed along with two other fighters in battle in the southern Strip when the force entered a booby-trapped building.

The panel also included Einat Sagi Alpesa, a board member of the "Left Behind a Partner" organization. Einat lost her partner Shimshon Zeidner z"l in 1994, at a time when the concept of "bereaved partner" did not exist at all in Israeli society. Today she accompanies the young men and women left alone.

According to the organization's data released at the three-year mark of the war:

412 partners have lost their loved ones since the outbreak of war.
118 of them lost their partner on October 7 itself.
57% of the bereaved were under 21 at the time of loss.
10% of the partners were engaged or approaching their wedding.
The youngest was only 16 when her beloved fell, and the oldest was 60.

"Bereaved partners lost not only the person they loved, but along with them the future they imagined together was also cut off," summarizes Adv. Adi Alon Sheinberg, CEO of the organization. "Because they did not yet marry, their place in the circle of bereavement is not always self-evident. We are here to provide them with a therapeutic envelope and a supportive community, so they can return to life alongside the mourning, and not in its shadow."