Staff Sgt. David Ratner, 20: Golani soldier ‘radiated inner strength’
Killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the Nahal Oz IDF base
Staff Sgt. David Ratner, 20, a Golani Brigade soldier, from Ashdod, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of the Nahal Oz IDF base.
When the attack began, David, a Negevist, went up to an observation tower and began shooting at Hamas gunmen outside the base. Later, while he was next to on-base shelter, he was wounded in his neck from a bullet, but he continued fighting for many hours until he was killed.
David was among the 53 soldiers killed in the Nahal Oz base, the hardest-hit IDF facility in Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
He was buried on October 13 in Ashdod. He is survived by his parents, Miriam and Chaim, and his five siblings, Yosef, Esther, Shlomo, Ariel and Batel.
The oldest in the family, David was born in in Simferopol, Ukraine, and moved to Israel with his parents in 2005, when he was 2 years old, according to a municipal eulogy.
Growing up he loved sports, playing both soccer and basketball for a number of years. He loved rap music and would write his own lyrics, including during his army service. David and his family were active members of the Beit Hallel messianic Jewish congregation in Ashdod.
After finishing high school, he enlisted in the IDF and joined the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, training as a Negevist — an operator of the Negev light machine gun. He served in the Golan Heights and in the West Bank before he was stationed at the Nahal Oz base.
David’s girlfriend of three years, Diana, wrote on Instagram that “God took the most important person to me in the world.”
“I didn’t think our lives together would end this way,” she wrote. “My love, I’m waiting for you to return, I can’t live without you… We were together for three years and I know that these are the best three years of my life, because you are such a unique person.”
Diana said that David “always taught me to be the strongest woman… you’re a hero, you’re the strongest warrior in the world, you saved your friends, you fought for hours against terrorists… I’m so proud of you,” she added. “You’ve left me alone with the best memories.”
His mother, Miriam, told a Kan podcast that “I feel in my heart that this was David’s choice. That he was willing to give his life for the people, for all his friends, for his family. Of course he wanted to live, but this he wanted with all his heart. He did what he wanted.”
Miriam told a local news outlet that her oldest son “was an exceptional person — strong, sensitive, generous and beloved. He radiated inner strength and peace, he was a true friend, a person who always knew how to give without expecting anything in return. He lived his life with passion and bravery, and fell when he was protecting his friends and the State of Israel with his body.”
The Times of Israel Community.