Staff Sgt. Nehoray Said, 21, a soldier in the Kfir Brigade from Ofakim, was killed on October 7 battling the Hamas invasion of his hometown.
Nehoray was home with his family the morning of the attack, but when he heard of the Hamas invasion, he grabbed his weapon and headed outside, according to a municipal eulogy. There he joined up with two other civilians who had also headed out to fight, including Rabbi Shachar Butzhak.
Butzhak told the Makor Rishon newspaper that the three decided to stay together. After killing a number of terrorists, a Hamas gunmen opened fire at them, and Butzhak was shot in the knee while Nehoray was killed on the spot.
Amid the chaos, his family was not officially notified of his death for three days. He was buried in Ofakim on October 10. He is survived by parents, Hagit and Zohar, and his four siblings, Meytal, Batel, Galor and Tohar, and his girlfriend, Ella.
The youngest of his siblings, Nehoray was raised in Ofakim, attending local religious schools. He was active in the Bnei Akiva youth group and loved to travel around the country, spending time next to the Kinneret or along the Israel Trail, his loved ones said. He was known for his sense of humor and always cracking a joke, but was also serious about the things that were important to him.
In December 2021, Nehoray enlisted in the IDF and was placed in the Kfir Brigade’s Shimshon Battalion, undergoing training as a driver and to operate a machine gun and grenade launcher.
“Nehoray was a man of action and joy, helping others and boundless love of the land,” wrote his sister, Tohar, on Facebook. “He loved to travel around the north with his girlfriend and friends, and one of the things he loved to eat was toast with tons of butter and garlic,” a dish they have chosen to memorialize him with, “to continue his life, as he willed to us with his death. We should only be worthy.”
Nehoray’s girlfriend of seven years, Ella, wrote on a memorial Instagram page recalling one of their trips together to the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret), sitting and talking “and I’m pretty sure that you made me laugh and I annoyed you, because that’s just us… and I felt the happiest person in the world, just because I had you.”
Ella said that Nehoray handed her a black marker and asked her to write on their trip bag a sentence, and she wrote: “The brave might not live forever, but those who are afraid don’t live at all.”
“You are brave, always were and always will be. You look danger in the eye and don’t cower, with an unapologetic smile you know the right thing to do and don’t delay along the way,” she added. “You lived a simple life, full of truth, kindness and generosity, you were devoted to everything you believed in, your family, your friends, me. But at the very top — our country.”
