Those We Have Lost

Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia, 22: ‘A very gentle, sweet person’

Killed battling Hamas near Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7

Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia who was killed in Kfar Aza on October 8, 2023. (Courtesy)
Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia who was killed in Kfar Aza on October 8, 2023. (Courtesy)

Sgt. First Class Yosef Malachi Guedalia, 22, of the Duvdevan commando unit, was killed in action on October 7 near Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

He is survived by his parents, Dina and Yitzhak, and his siblings Shira, Asher, Yael, Micha, Esther and Elisheva, as well as his wife, Senai.

Guedalia was born and raised in Beit Shemesh in an English-speaking family. Proud of his Spanish-Portuguese heritage, he was “a very gentle, sweet person. He would blend seamlessly into any new group he joined. People loved him and he was accepted by everyone,” a relative told The Times of Israel.

Guedalia was due to finish his IDF service soon, and had gotten married almost exactly one year ago. His was buried on October 11 at the Har Hertzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.

A fundraising campaign for the Duvdevan unit was started in his name. It describes Guedalia as “a friend, a brother, a soldier, a husband, and most importantly a beautiful soul. He left behind a wonderful family and a heroic unit that could really use some good news and is continuously fighting for our safety.”

His wife, Senai, wrote on Instagram that her husband was “kind, generous, happy, curious to learn more, dedicated and loved life. There was no situation in which he wasn’t smiling, no situation in which he wasn’t calm. He was inspired by the people around him and the new people he met.”

He was “an incredible, dedicated, and loving husband. Even from afar, I always felt he was close by and with me whenever I needed.” He was also “a very dedicated soldier,” she wrote, “Yosef loved being in the army, and considered it his most important mission. He loved his friends, he loved the fast pace, and he loved that he was doing something so meaningful. Even after almost four years, he loved it and wasn’t tired of it.”

Read more Those We Have Lost stories here.

Most Popular
read more: