Master Sgt. Gilad Molcho, 33: Newlywed reservist who worked in hi-tech

Master Sgt. (res.) Gilad Molcho, 33, an Egoz soldier, from Tel Aviv, was killed on October 9, 2023, while battling a terrorist invasion along the Lebanon border.

With the start of the Hamas invasion, Gilad’s team commander in Egoz told them via WhatsApp that they were needed on the northern front, and Gilad was the first to volunteer. They were assigned to join troops of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade, stationed along the border.

He was killed in a gun battle alongside Sgt. First Class Jawad Amer and Lt. Col. Alim Abdallah, when several Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory from Lebanon. The clash occurred near the northern Bedouin Israeli town of Arab al-Aramshe and the Lebanese village of Dhayra.

Gilad was buried on October 12 in Ramat Hasharon. He is survived by his wife, Adi, his parents, Pazit and Udi, and his three sisters, Omer, Lior and Neta.

Gilad was born and raised in Ramat Hasharon, attending local schools and focusing his studies on biology and philosophy, according to an IDF obituary. He was athletic and passionate about soccer, his family said.

After graduating from high school, Gilad enlisted in the Golani Brigade and was accepted into the elite Egoz reconnaissance unit. Following his service, Gilad continued to perform reserve duty and also earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and management at The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo.

He later started working at hi-tech companies in Tel Aviv as an account manager and business development specialist.

Gilad loved to cook and was also a DJ, participating in many Midburn festivals, and even setting up “The Eggplant’s Guide To The Galaxy” camp within the festival for several years.

Adi and Gilad met in 2021 and immediately fell in love, moving in together just two weeks after their first date. They wed on August 26, 2023, and were planning a honeymoon in Mexico in November. She called him “Treasure,” and he called her “Magic.”

Adi, told JTA that “he’s the love of my life in a way that’s hard to put into words. We were inseparable. Love like that just doesn’t exist.”

“I made him swear that we would live till 90 and that I would never die alone,” she recalled.

Adi said it was hard to return to even the small aspects of life without being hit by grief, with memories slamming into her while cooking, cleaning and even doing laundry: “Our whole life was filled with these little rituals.”

Marking a year since he was killed, Gilad’s sister, Omer, wrote on social media that he was “a bit superhuman, a kind of angel that someone sent to walk among us, the simple ordinary people.”

Omer said that her brother “was a man of contrasts… wherever you were placed, you were in your element. Confident, leading — not always in the right place but always ahead, always with a smile and a whole heart. Always with pure intentions, wanting everyone to be happy. Together.”

She described him as “an uncle, brother, son, partner, grandson, nephew, cousin, brother-in-law, friend, colleague, you name it… Oh, how much more fun we would have had together. There was a whole life I wanted to live with you. And in the end, I only got a little. But on the other hand, I got the most from you. From the first day you set foot here and right up until the last moment.”

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