Maj. Raz Peretz, 24: Golani commander was planning upcoming wedding

Maj. Raz Peretz, 24, commander of a combat support company in the Golani Brigade, from Afula, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas attack on the Kissufim IDF outpost.

The morning of the attack, Raz and his company were stationed at the IDF outpost not far from the Gaza border. When he realized what was happening, he gathered the 18 other soldiers on base in the bomb shelter and organized a plan of action.

From inside the shelter, Raz began firing at the Hamas gunmen inside the base, until he was hit in his arm and had to switch hands. He later charged out of the shelter to engage in a closer-range battle with the gunmen and was shot and killed.

Raz was slain that day alongside six of his soldiers: Staff Sgt. Yogev Aharon, Staff Sgt. Or Asto, Staff Sgt. Brando Flores Garcia, Staff Sgt. Eviatar Ochayon Abukasis, Staff Sgt. Teshager Taka and Sgt. Uriel Segal. The other 12 soldiers survived.

He was buried in Afula on October 11. He is survived by his fiance, Noam, his parents, Nava and Roni and his siblings Hadar and Itamar.

The oldest in his family, Raz was born and raised in Afula, attending local schools, according to an IDF eulogy. His two major interests, his family said, were soccer and music.

He learned a number of instruments as a child, focusing most on drums, and later bought turntables and began experimenting as a DJ during parties for his friends — something he continued while on weekend breaks from the army.

After high school he took a trip to Thailand with family and friends and when he returned he enlisted in the IDF in July 2017, joining the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion. He completed a squad commander’s course and later an officer’s course, becoming a deputy company commander.

Raz signed up to stay in the IDF past the mandatory period, and then completed a company commander’s course, and was appointed a company commander in the 51st Battalion.

Raz and Noam met in the 5th grade and their close friendship turned romantic toward the end of high school. In 2021 they moved in together, and in April 2023 he proposed, and the pair set a wedding date for March 7, 2024.

A month after he was killed, Noam wrote to Raz on Instagram: “My love, you were my support system, the most stable pillar of strength in my life, the most pure and good love.”

Noam recalled how they became friends in middle school, when she met “a boy with sandy hair and freckles. A boy who became my best friend before anything. Everyone at school knew that there was no Noam without Raz and no Raz without Noam. Close, glued together, inseparable.”

“The love of my life, you were my secret keeper, we went through everything together — from elementary school to middle school, high school until your enlistment,” she continued. “Seven years of being in a relationship, a healthy and loving relationship, the kind that can’t be explained. Soulmates who met each other. You were the person who always completed me.”

Raz’s father, Roni, told Army Radio that his oldest son “was a boy with very unique values, a musical kid from when he was little, he loved music and played many instruments. He was always happy and made sure to make others happy. He played the drums, guitar, keyboard, and in recent years he was also a DJ.”

Roni said that Raz “always wanted to join Golani, he liked the familial nature, the togetherness, the brotherhood — there’s something special there that he always connected to… he really loved it. He wanted to give a significant service to the country.”

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