Staff Sgt. Neria Ben David, 22: Combat engineer volunteered on a farm

Staff Sgt. Neria Ben David, 22, a squad commander in the Combat Engineering Corps, from Haifa, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion of Kibbutz Be’eri.

At the start of the Hamas attack, Neria and his troops were stationed in Otniel in the South Hebron Hills, and they were quickly sent toward the front lines near Gaza, according to an IDF eulogy. When they got to the area near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, they encountered a terrorist cell and engaged in a gun battle, killing them.

Neria and his squad then arrived at Netiv Ha’asara, and worked to rescue dozens of people by bringing them to safety via the town’s rear gate. His team was then sent to Kibbutz Be’eri, arriving there as the sun was setting that evening. Neria sent his family several messages throughout the day, assuring them that he was OK, including at 9:07 p.m.

The troops were sent in to the youth wing of the kibbutz, rescuing dozens of those who had been trapped for hours amid the fighting. Around 10:30 p.m. that evening, Neria encountered a cell of terrorists still inside the kibbutz and was shot dead in the firefight.

He was buried on October 11 on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem — a day before his sister had been slated to get married. He is survived by his parents, Michal and Baruch, and his seven siblings, Akiva, Moriah, Hillel, Renana, Odeya, Avichai and Yehezkel.

Born and raised in Haifa, Neria was fourth in his family of eight siblings, attending religious schools in Rekhasim and later in Migdal Haemek and the Golan Heights. He was always connected to the land, the environment, agriculture and animals, his family said, attending a high school that combined Torah studies with agricultural work, and later volunteering on a farm in the Lower Galilee, including working with retired police dogs.

He enlisted in the IDF in March 2022 and joined the Combat Engineering Corps, later completing a squad commanders’ course. During his brief breaks from his army service, he would make sure to return to visit and work at the farm where he had been volunteering.

Moshe Ofer, the principal of his high school, told a local radio station that Neria was “a special young man with great powers of action and generosity, the first to volunteer for everything with great diligence… He grew up with the values of doing the most and taking initiative and everything modestly, without seeking attention or seeking credit, but quietly and humbly.”

Neria’s mother, Michal, told a local news outlet that her son was “a boy with a unique joy for life, and brought us great light, our sense as parents was always that we were privileged to have him.”

He “was very connected to the Land of Israel, he loved it and felt a strong tie to it,” she said. When he would return home from working at the farm with his clothes covered in mud, she said, “I would say to him, ‘Neria, what is all this dirt,’ and he’d say to me, ‘Mom, it’s not dirt, it’s the mud of the Land of Israel.”

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