Staff Sgt. Ori Gerby, 20: Givati soldier and talented tennis player

Staff Sgt. Ori Gerby, 20, a soldier with the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Herzliya, died on January 18, 2024, of wounds sustained a day earlier while fighting in south Gaza.

He was seriously wounded by an RPG during a battle in Khan Younis and brought to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba where he succumbed to his wounds a day later. His liver and kidney were donated and saved the life of a baby and a 6-year-old girl.

He was killed alongside his friend and comrade, Staff Sgt. Oriya Ayimalk Goshen.

Ori was buried in Herzliya on January 19. He is survived by his parents, Naomi and Chagai, his sister, Yuval and his girlfriend, Chen.

Born in Petah Tikva, Ori and his family moved to Herzliya when he was 5 years old. Ori arrived in the world after years of his parents trying for a baby, according to an IDF eulogy.

At age 8 he started playing tennis, and quickly showed great talent in the sport and began competing, training almost daily. He also played basketball, soccer, matkot (beach paddle ball) and table tennis, his family said, as well as took up running.

He also loved to write, including writing and illustrating a book at age 9 titled “Aliens vs. Mutants from Mars,” as well as limericks and poems for his family. Ori loved photography and also loved animals and wildlife, his loved ones said.

At age 16, he gave up tennis to focus on preparing for his army service, aiming to serve in an elite unit. After finishing high school, Ori enlisted in the IDF in August 2021 and was placed in the Givati Brigade, successfully completing the lengthy training to join its reconnaissance unit.

On October 7, 2023, Ori joined his comrades battling in Kibbutz Nahal Oz to save inhabitants from the Hamas onslaught. Later, he was sent into Gaza with the start of the IDF ground campaign, fighting there for more than 100 days before he was killed.

“Ori was a special child and had an inner light that radiated outward. I always felt that he was a gift for a short time,” his mother, Naomi told the Ynet news site. “When the war broke out, I felt that he wouldn’t come back. He was a competitive tennis player, an athlete, and he left tennis behind to enlist in the army. He aspired to reach as far as possible.”

Naomi said that she last saw her son two months before he was killed, and they last spoke five days before, when “he said he hadn’t showered in 45 days. He said he looked like a disheveled professor and laughed his sweet laugh.”

His father, Chagai, told the news site that Ori had aspired to “serve in Sayeret Matkal and ended up in Givati. He was admired by everyone and his commanders said they would follow him into battle. It’s hard for us to say ‘was,’ it’s still not believable. Uri was the first grandson on Naomi’s side of the family. He loved animals, the safari in Ramat Gan was his second home. He was smart, he could do anything he wanted in this life.”

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