Staff Sgt. Brando Flores Garcia, 21: Peruvian native and soccer player

Staff Sgt. Brando David Flores Garcia, 21, a driver in the IDF’s Gaza Division, from Beersheba, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the Kissufim outpost.

Brando was stationed at Kissufim that morning, and ran with many others to the on-base bomb shelter when the air raid sirens sounded. Many of those gathered there were unarmed when they realized that terrorists had infiltrated the base and were throwing grenades inside the shelter.

Brando and many others — including Staff Sgt. Benyamin Belay, Staff Sgt. Or Asto, Staff Sgt. Yogev Aharon and Staff Sgt. Teshager Taka — were slain in the battle.

Brando was buried on October 11 in Beersheba. He is survived by his parents, Hector and Nelia Luz, and his two older sisters, Susan and Mirella.

Born in Pucallpa, Peru, his family moved to Israel in 2017, when Brando was 14. They settled in an absorption center in Beersheba, and Brando — who had played soccer in a number of different clubs in Peru and stood out for his talent — quickly picked up the sport again in Israel.

He was soon spotted by the Maccabi Beersheba team which invited him to join their roster. Brando enlisted in the army in 2021 in a special track to enable him to continue playing soccer for the Maccabi Beersheba professional team.

Nir Barad, who coached the team, told a sports news site that “when Brando joined the club he couldn’t say more than two words in Hebrew. Brando was an incredible example to all his friends of everything connected to generosity and solidarity. He always put the team’s success above his own personal success… The Maccabi Beersheba club salutes you and promises that your approach and your spirit will always be the one the club adopts.”

Brando’s aunt, Judith Flores, told a Peruvian news outlet that she and her nephew “always talked. He would call me and tell me about his day on the military base, he was happy.” Judith said Brando was exploring his post-army options, and “he really liked soccer. Since he arrived [in Israel] he had been in several clubs and had many friends. He was a few months away from finishing and he told us that he wanted to be a policeman. He had always wanted to be a policeman.”

On what would have been his 22nd birthday, his girlfriend, Sharon Knap, wrote on Instagram that she was “so grateful that you came into my life to show me what real love was, to teach me how to love, to give and to receive.”

“With you, things were so beautiful and calm, my love. I want to cause you pride in trying to continue your beautiful legacy by trying to continue your joy for life, by taking your pretty words and advice and making them come true,” she added. “You were and always will be the person who changed my life for the better, the person who saved me, who loved me, who picked me up when I fell and brought me the most beautiful period in my life.”

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