Staff Sgt. Or Mizrahi, 21: A third tragedy for his immediate family

Staff Sgt. Or Mizrahi, 21, of the Nahal infantry brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Petah Tikva, was killed fighting near the Gaza border on October 7.

He is survived by his father, Avi, and his sister Stav. He was predeceased by his mother Michal and brother Shahar. He was buried on October 12 in Petah Tikva.

His death marked the third tragedy in his immediate family.

When he was 16 months old, his mother died of illness, leaving his father Avi to raise him. Three and a half years ago, his brother Shahar was killed in a motorcycle accident.

His girlfriend of three years, Osnat Hazam, said that she and his father and sister had been planning to take food to him on his base on that Saturday. The last conversation between the couple took place by video on Saturday morning.

“He said there were missiles, showed me the skies, and there were dozens of rockets. He showed me he was sheltering behind a wall, and then said he saw a vehicle near the base and had to go and help because that was his job as a soldier. He told me he loved me the most in the world, but that he had to go and help civilians. We were still on video when suddenly he photographed half his body and said, ‘Ossi, I’m dead,’ and then the phone disconnected,” Hazam said.

Hazam said the couple met through friends and became close after his brother died and she was there to comfort him: “Since then we were always close together. The love of my life, and I of his. He made sure to tell me every day that I was the one.”

She said he was very close to his surviving family, and “made sure every night to tell his father, ‘Good night, I love you.’ He was the best person and the most understanding person I knew. He told me I would be the mother of his children and he even planned to fly abroad for a post-army trip to propose to me.”

Mizrahi had been due to be released from his military conscription a month after his death, his father said.

“We were told that 400 terrorists attacked them and that Or fell first,” Stav, his 28-year-old sister, told the Maariv newspaper. She said he was devoted to her and to his father: “He always made sure I was happy. He wanted us to take a class in English together. He was the heart of the house, my best friend. We would share secrets, he told me everything.”

Stav told Channel 13 news in an interview that Or “always wanted for us to be united. Me, dad, Shahar, he always wanted us to love each other, not to fight, not to argue — and if there was, to make up and to love each other.”

His father, Avi, told a local news outlet, “We lost a dear boy. I don’t have words to describe how much I loved him. Or is now closer to God. Or said to me once, ‘I will be a great guy, you will be proud of me.’ I am proud of him now, too, because I know that he tried to save the people of Israel.”

Avi added that “Or was a happy person, and would want to see us all here smiling, even clapping for him… He was all light.”