Staff Sgt. Haim Meir Eden, 20: Golani soldier was ‘glue of the family’
Died on December 9, 2023, of wounds sustained fighting Hamas at the Paga IDF outpost on October 7
Staff Sgt. Haim Meir Eden, 20, a Golani Brigade soldier from Rehovot, died on December 9, 2023, of wounds he sustained fighting Hamas on October 7.
Haim was stationed at the Paga IDF outpost that morning, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. According to his family, after 20 minutes in battle he was shot in the face and legs and he sought safety inside the on-base bomb shelter in the cafeteria.
Several hours later, the Hamas gunmen tried to light the building on fire. Haim was evacuated to the Assaf Harofeh Hospital, south of Tel Aviv, only around 12 hours after he was first wounded. There he fought for his life for two months until he ultimately succumbed to his wounds.
A large number of Golani soldiers were slain at the outpost that day, including Sgt. Roei Peri, Staff Sgt. Yakir Levi, Staff Sgt. Shalev Baranes and Sgt. Habib Kiean.
Haim was buried on December 9 in Rehovot. He is survived by his parents, Inbal and Adi Shalom, and his five siblings, Noam, Devora, Yisrael, Elazar and Hedva.
He was a devout fan of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, and he watched them play in Teddy Stadium just a few days before he was mortally wounded.
Despite growing up in a Haredi family, Haim enlisted in the IDF in March 2022, serving in the Golani Brigade.
“Haim around age 16 made a change in his path,” leaving behind the strict ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, his father, Adi, told Channel 14 in an interview, but said he nevertheless remained close to the family.
“We were the best of friends. Haim and I, and his older brother, we’d always go to soccer games together, to the movies, we’d spend a lot of time together,” his father added.
“He was kind of the glue of the family… he always gave attention to his younger siblings, a special guy,” he said. “I was privileged to be the father of a hero.”