Sgt. Matan Malka, 19: Tennis player who ‘adopted’ two lone soldiers
Killed battling the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7
Sgt. Matan Yisrael Malka, 19, a soldier in the Paratroopers Brigade, from Kibbutz Gesher Haziv, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kissufim.
At the time of the Hamas attack, Matan was taking part in a squad commander’s training course, and was stationed on base. With the start of the invasion, Matan and his comrades were sent southward toward Kibbutz Kissufim to join the fighting, according to an IDF eulogy.
At 9:30 a.m. he spoke to his parents and told them he was being sent to help rescue residents of the Gaza border area. Along they way they encountered a number of others in need of help, as well as engaged in gun battles with other Hamas gunmen.
They arrived at Kissufim in the afternoon, and there Matan was shot dead while trying to rescue besieged residents, alongside five comrades: Staff Sgt. Adam Agmon, Staff Sgt. Omri Peretz, Sgt. Bar Yankilov, Sgt. Lavi Buchnik and Sgt. Regev Amar.
Matan was buried on October 12 in Gesher Haziv. He is survived by his parents, Libat and Yossi, and his younger siblings, Ohad, Amit and Itamar.
The firstborn in the family, Matan was born in Kiryat Haim and raised in Gesher Haziv in the Western Galilee. He attended local schools and played tennis, in which he excelled.
Despite standing out in the sport, at age 16, Matan quit tennis to focus on getting in shape to fulfill his dream of joining the Paratroopers and also worked at a boating club in Nahariya. In December 2022, he enlisted into the Paratroopers Brigade and later joined a squad commander’s course.
His loved ones said he was always looking out for those around him, including two immigrant lone soldiers in his battalion. In his memory, his family established a lodging house for lone soldiers in his name in Jerusalem.
At the ceremony, his mother, Libat, said that “his whole life, Matan always saw those who were different from him. During basic training, he adopted two friends from overseas, from France and the US, and during the shiva, they told us that Matan was always making sure they understood the language and he would explain things to them again so they would understand and fit in.”
“Matan saw everything modestly,” she said. “Love thy neighbor as thyself — even if he’s not like you, that was exactly him.” Libat said that “in his values, giving to others was the most basic thing, thanking them for coming to protect the country they didn’t live in.”
In his notebook that they found after his death, she said, he expressed a great desire to fight for his country: “There are those who would call us suckers, but I call it Zionism and generosity and true love,” he wrote.
His girlfriend since 10th grade, Shahar, wrote online about “everything we went through together, everything we planned to do together.”
“You had huge dreams… three years of incredible friendship, you were always there and then suddenly you were gone,” she added. “And I? I am left with a huge longing and an enormous hole because they took my heart and shattered it into pieces. You lit up everywhere you went, you made everyone you met laugh, there’s nowhere and nobody you didn’t leave your mark on.”
