Those we have lost

Staff Sgt. Tomer Mizrahi, 21: Nahal soldier’s song lives on in memory

Killed battling Hamas gunmen near Kibbutz Sufa on October 7

Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Mizrahi (Courtesy)
Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Mizrahi (Courtesy)

Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Mizrahi, 21, a soldier in the Sayeret Nahal reconnaissance unit, from Hoshaya, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of southern Israel.

He was stationed that morning at the Sufa IDF outpost next to the border with south Gaza. When the attack began, he was on a routine patrol near the border, and with word of the invasion, they headed to counter the Hamas gunmen.

Tomer and his comrades battled Hamas at a monument near Kibbutz Sufa where they were called to assist other soldiers holed up there inside a roadside bomb shelter. As they approached, their jeep was hit by an RPG, and Tomer was severely wounded but still managed to get out of the jeep and keep fighting.

Ultimately, he was slain in the battle alongside Cpt. Eyal Klein, Staff Sgt. Daniel Bezgodov and Maj. Roey Chapell.

Tomer was buried in Hoshaya on October 10. He is survived by his parents, Sarit and David, and his five siblings, Matan, Noam, Ariel, Ya’ara and Elad.

Born in Tiberias, the middle child among his five siblings, Tomer moved with his family at age 5 to the small community of Hoshaya in the Lower Galilee, according to an IDF eulogy. He attended religious schools, and for high school traveled to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu.

His loved ones said Tomer loved to sing and play guitar and was always composing his own songs. As a teen, he started a band that performed covers of Israeli songs. A song he wrote and recorded at 16 — called “Kochav Zohar” (Shining Star) was produced and released in his memory.

He also danced in a local troupe and enjoyed playing chess and basketball.

After high school, Tomer spent a year in the Aderet pre-military academy in Ayanot, then enlisted in the IDF in August 2021, following in his older brother’s footsteps and joining the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit.

His brother, Matan, told a radio station that “Tomer was a happy and beloved kid, he wanted the most combat role possible in the army and they gave him a role overseeing the company. He was the most loved in his company.”

Matan said his younger brother was “a mischievous kid, he loved to sit with his friends for hours, loved to play the guitar and sing, he loved the good life.”

His mother, Sarit, wrote in the Makor Rishon newspaper about years of visiting Tomer on army bases, “with the fish dish that you loved and challah to wipe up the sauce and salads and a bottle of Nestea. But we never went to Sufa… because what could ever happen at Sufa?”

Sarit wrote of all the things she wishes she could tell Tomer: “I would tell you that our calendar is packed full, the house is packed full, and our heart is empty.”

“I would tell you that we called the WhatsApp group where we share things about you ‘the salt of the earth.’ Do you remember that once you told someone that you and your friends were the ‘salt of the earth,’ and we all laughed and made fun of you? It took many years and one funeral to understand that you were right.”

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