Ben Shoshana and Yosef. Born on the 17th of Tishrei 5742 (17.10.1981) in Givat Shmuel, the second son of the five children of the family Ofer grew up in Givat Shmuel, a naughty and curly child, full of grace and joy of life Ofer made his first years of schooling at Shilo Elementary School In the fourth grade, he began his great love for basketball after joining the Elizur Givat Shmuel basketball team, and since then he has become an avid basketball fan, and in that year he joined the Bnei Akiva youth movement, And was prominent as an active and dominant trainee, who swept all his friends behind him, and he always went on all the trips, camps and marches. He studied at the Kfar Haroah Yeshiva, where he learned mainly how to play basketball rather than to invest in basketball. But nevertheless he was careful not to interfere with his scholastic achievements. Prior to his induction, Ofer insisted on raising a medical profile in order to enlist in the Golani Brigade. After a long and arduous process he succeeded in the mission, and in March 2000 he enlisted in the IDF for the 13th Battalion in Golani.Oper started a basic training course and after advanced training became a full-fledged Golenchik warrior. In the battalion. During this period most of the activity took place on a northern line at Har Dov. Despite the difficulty of long patrols, patrols, days and nights, sometimes under Hezbollah fire, Ofer always sings and smiles. Songs that carry all the guys with them, songs that accompanied him all along. “Flow,” is what he told himself and everyone, “flow with life, do not delay, let time lead you, do not build walls and inhibitions, only live once.” It became his motto. Ofer always made sure the people around him were smiling, no matter how bad the situation was, as long as it was up to him, there were laughter around. During visits to his grandmother, he arrived with a lot of love. He gave her a few pats on the back, a few pinches on the cheek, and with a smile from ear to ear, and immediately she forgot all the pains. In addition to all his good qualities, Ofer was characterized by his obsession with neatness and cleanliness. Ofer showered five times a day. Morning, noon, evening, before and after training, before and after departure. His comrades in the unit say that he exchanged guards with them in return for the water they were given to the shower. In July 2002, Ofer moved to the Golani Brigade in Peles, where he served as a sergeant and later became a PCP officer, and he performed the task harshly and seriously. His recruits did not meet my real, smiling and funny man, but he took care of them like a father. His soldiers always took care of the order and cleanliness, made sure that his soldiers received everything they deserved, and even the soldiers who were not able to bear financial expenses. Give them the necessary help. His concern reached the point of opening a bank account that served as a fundraising fund for the soldiers. The night before his fall, Ofer arrived at the Bakaot base at 3 am after an exhausting day of traveling north and center for the soldiers. The company was supposed to go to the training the next day for training in the south, leaving only the last preparations at the base. Despite his exhaustion, Ofer went to do them and only then went to sleep. On Thursday, 10 April 2003, at five in the morning, two terrorists entered the base under the cover of darkness and began to fire at the tents of the sleeping soldiers, before Ofer fell asleep, shouting “They shoot at us, this is real”But the shots of the terrorists preceded him. Staff Sergeant Ofer was also killed by Staff Sergeant Yigal Livshitz. Ofer was buried in the Segula Military Cemetery and is twenty-one and a half years old. Survived by his parents, two sisters – Linoy and Daniel and two brothers – Yehiel and Stav. His friends say that the friendship that Ofer built with them can not be described in words, it was necessary to see that such societies are rare to find, soul friends, that one can rely on each other in every situation. There was a very close relationship between them, the strengths of giving and sharing together, which made Ofer unique.
