Sgt. Segev Schwartz, 20: Nature lover with a wide circle of friends
Killed while battling a Hamas invasion of the IDF Sufa outpost on October 7
Sgt. Segev Schwartz, 20, a Nahal Brigade soldier from Beit Shean, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion of the IDF Sufa outpost.
While fighting back against the invasion, the soldiers on base decided to take up position in the cafeteria to battle against the terrorists, but Segev was wounded by a grenade on his way there and died before help could arrive. He and 13 other soldiers were killed in the battle at Sufa, but succeeded in repelling the invasion of the base and killing many of the terrorists.
His family was only notified of his death three days later.
Segev was buried on October 11 in Beit Shean. He is survived by his parents, Ehud and Sarah, and his older siblings Karin, Dvir and Matan.
His sister, Karin, told a local news outlet that Segev “fought to be assigned a combat role, they wanted to enlist him as a technician [through an academic path], but he wanted a meaningful service and asked to be in Nahal.”
Karin described her brother as “a beloved child, fun and funny, his presence always instilled calm and levity. He loved nature, loved to be with his friends.”
Writing in Israel Hayom, Karin said Segev was “a man of nature, open spaces and people — but most of all, of connections. A person who knew to bring people together, from all walks of life, with ease and the naturalness that so defined him. Segev was handsome with kind eyes, moral with a huge heart full of compassion.”
As part of a memorial project set up by President Isaac Herzog, his family gave the president a special version of his favorite drink, pear juice, with a commemorative label.
His brother, Dvir, told Haaretz that Segev “was the glue of the family, a magical guy. Every free moment he had he would rush to go spend with his friends,” he said, noting that is why the family established a hangout/lookout spot in nature in his honor in his favorite location.
He and his friends “would sit there all the time, all of their youth they spent there,” said Dvir. “Segev would love it, it’s symbolic for us that it will be a place his friends will keep visiting, even without him… and enjoy the place and the view that Segev loved so much.”
Speaking on Channel 13, Dvir said that the thing that most characterized Segev was “his ability to connect between people — the number of friends he had, the friends in his platoon who called his [favorite pear juice] ‘Segev juice’ after him… That’s how we want to commemorate Segev.”
