Shoham, Yehezkel

Yehezkel (Hezi), son of Geula and Yitzhak, was born on 10.4.1954 in Kibbutz Gesher Haziv, November 1972, and was assigned to the paratroopers. He could serve in a unit where the service did not require much effort, because of his faulty eye, but fought with all his might until he was accepted into the Paratroopers’ reconnaissance unit. Although he was one of the elite units in the Israel Defense Forces, he never underestimated other units, and his friends told him that he was a “real kibbutznik,” a tall and strong guy who was always kind and naive. “Hezi was one of those big guys,” said one of his friends. “One of the guys in his unit could not say that he was a friend only because he was a friend of everyone. Safe and quiet, that in times of danger and urgency, everyone wants him to be there. Next to my chest was a sense of security, of deep peace and quiet, never to be disturbed. He was always ready to come and remove the stretcher from a painful shoulder, even though he himself was not nearly resting, and was more burdened than anyone else … His goodness seemed to have no limit. “He did not have any great ambitions, and he wanted him to return to the kibbutz and live in peace and quiet. “When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Hezi was with his unit in Sinai.” In his letter to the house dated 7 October 1973, he wrote: “War, and I am still alive and well. I know how tense you are and hope you have calmed down a bit. “His letters were sent from the front a day and it was impossible to imagine what was going on in his relaxed and humorous content.On October 17, 1973, The ship was ambushed and killed, only a few meters from a safe place, and was brought to rest in the Gesher Haziv cemetery, leaving behind two parents and two brothers.