Cpt. Alina Pravosudova, 23: ‘Gingit’ loved ballet, volunteered for MDA
Killed battling Hamas terrorists who overran the Urim IDF base on October 7
Cpt. Alina Pravosudova, 23, from Haifa, was killed battling Hamas terrorists who overran the Urim IDF base on October 7.
She is survived by her parents, Olga and Michael, her brother Daniel, 15, and her grandparents. She was buried on October 10 in Haifa.
A redhead with a beaming smile, Alina was a combat soldier in the search and rescue team of the Home Front Command, and was the officer on duty at the Urim base on that fateful Saturday morning.
She had stayed on in the IDF past her mandatory service period, had signed on to stay until 2027, and had successfully completed an officer’s course.
When the terrorists invaded the base, they cornered Alina and her team of soldiers in the war room. After Hamas gained access to the room while launching a grenade, Alina was killed while trying to protect herself and her soldiers in the battle that ensued. Two soldiers who were wounded but survived, later recounted the events, according to Magen David Adom, where Alina volunteered for four years.
Her family and friends are now collecting funds to donate an ambulance in her name to MDA. Loved ones said she dreamed of one day becoming a doctor.
Lavi, who volunteered alongside her in MDA for years, told the Davar news outlet that “she was just wonderful. Wonderful. The kind who manages to do so many shifts a week, as many hours as possible, always at her best. Always excelling. It’s not a cliche — it was like this because she simply cared.”
Her parents, Olga and Michel immigrated to Israel from Ukraine in the late 90s, hoping to find a better future in their new homeland.
Dubbed “Gingit” by her friends because of her flaming red hair, friends and family remembered Alina as a person who was always prepared to help others, who set the highest standards for herself and fought for just causes. She loved ballet and Aikido, for which she trained at a center in Haifa run by her grandparents.
Her boyfriend, Raz, who was himself wounded during his active service on October 7, wrote to her: “My dear Alina, you were an incredible person, from the very first moment I saw you I fell in love. We spoke about dreams, aspirations, a future. When they told me [you had been killed], I broke down. I am now a broken man.”
A video made in her memory by Amit Inbal, shows pictures of her over the years: in school, wearing a pink sweatshirt, horsing around with friends, noticeable because of her very fair skin enshrined by the red hair; dancing in the desert; hugging her little brother; graduating from high school with a pale blue evening dress, holding a red rose.
The images of her in the army depict her armed and in uniform, her hair tied up in a tight ponytail; dancing while cleaning the barracks, squeegee in hand; asleep on a bus. There is also an image of her on holiday, lying on her back in the shade of a tree, framed by green leaves, with her hair spread out over a blue-and-white striped mat. “You were gentle and a fighter,” the video ends. “You were a rose in the desert.”
“Alina always wanted more than she could,” her father, Michael, told the Davar news outlet. “And it always worked out for her.”
He said that she danced ballet for years, always worked out and engaged in sports, “she had all the components for excellence, and she anyway kept going and stuck with it and became better than anyone. She really was like that, the best of everyone.”
