Sgt. Nahman Dekel, 20: Fun brother who ‘did everything with a smile’

Sgt. Nahman Dekel, 20, was killed while fighting Hamas in Kibbutz Sufa on October 7.

Dekel served in the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade and was on patrol at an army base near Kibbutz Sufa when Hamas began its brutal massacre in Israel’s south. Dekel confronted the assailants, shooting at them to protect the other members of his unit, and subsequently fell in battle on the morning of his 20th birthday.

The fallen soldier was one of five children born to Liron and Deganit Dekel in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel. Dekel’s older sister described him as a fun-loving, caring younger brother brimming with joie de vivre.

“You always smiled, always radiated light, it was always important to you that everyone was okay, it was always important to you that mom had what she needed — you made sure to spoil her at every opportunity and get her to rest,” eulogized Renen Dekel.

“You were always happy with what you had, would give things up for your sisters so that they could have the best there is and you did everything with a smile and calm,” she continued.

Dekel’s friends and family noted his love of singing. Tehila, his other older sister, recalled that he would grab a microphone and sing “any moment he could.”

Racheli Reisberg, Dekel’s girlfriend, fondly reminisced on times when the couple would sing Amir Benayoun’s “Standing at the Gate” together.

She described her late boyfriend in an Instagram post as the “smartest kid in the class, who will always be there for you, who sings like an angel and makes you laugh until your stomach hurts.”

Dekel’s funeral was held on October 13 in the Rosh Ha’ayin cemetery. He was posthumously promoted from the rank of corporal to sergeant.