Segev Schwartz was a fighter in the IDF's 50th Battalion, in the Nahal Brigade, when terrorists infiltrated Israel's South, pillaging and murdering along the way.
He and his friends fought a heroic battle that lasted for hours against dozens of terrorists who infiltrated Kibbutz Sufa, where they were stationed.
Schwartz was raised in the Beit She'an Valley and described by friends and family as someone whose superpower was building connections to a cosmic degree.
Segev Schwartz, a man who radiated optimism
He was "a man who knew how to connect people, from all sectors of society with the ease and naturalness that is characteristic of him," according to Karin, his older sister. "For him, the connecting moment, the purity, the inner cleanliness is the essence and meaning from which any dream or desire can be realized and fulfilled."
He was a man who radiated optimism, warming and lighting a room.
So when he succumbed to his injuries after fighting so heroically on October 7, his loss was felt like a cold shock. All his friends who were with him, except 2, were hospitalized; 4 more were killed, including two commanders.
"Over 48 years ago, the UN General Assembly passed the resolution that compared Zionism to racism," Karin said. "The former president and ambassador of Israel to the UN, the late Haim Herzog, stood on the stage of the UN and tore up the text of the resolution while declaring, 'For the Jewish people, this is nothing more than a piece of paper and that is how we will treat it.' [A month after the Israel-Hamas war broke out,] we received in our home his son, President Isaac Herzog, who came to console my family for the death of my little brother.
"Conflicts or differences of opinion were not given too much attention by Segev, and so I also mentioned to the president - we must tear up the worldviews that perpetuate division, just as his father tore up the text of the UN declaration in front of the whole world," she concluded. "We wish to continue the Segev's will and perpetuate the connections and unifying acts with lots of love, without ego, with a smile and peace."
The heroic battle at the Sufa outpost became one of the symbols of the war in Gaza after its fighters stopped the Hamas terrorists on October 7 in heroic battles from point-blank range.
On October 7, the Sufa outpost suffered immense heavy damage. Over 70 Hamas terrorists swarmed the outpost, blew up the security fence, and attacked the forces defending the area.
The terrorists encountered staunch resistance from the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit and the 50th Battalion, prepared at the entrance to the outpost and within it.
In the battles against dozens of terrorists, the deputy commander of the Caracal Battalion, commanded by Col. Or Ben Yehuda, as well as a platoon of tank crews, IDF combat helicopters, and Shayetet 13 fighters, assisted in eliminating the terrorists and clearing the outpost, which suffered severe infrastructure damage from the terrorists' explosives and fires.