Maj. Mordechay (Moti) Shamir, 29, an officer in the Golani Reconnaissance Unit, from the West Bank settlement of Yakir, was killed on October 7 while battling Hamas in Kibbutz Re’im.
During the time of the attack, Moti, a career army officer, was engaged in university studies as part of his IDF service. He was at home when the Hamas invasion began, but as soon as he heard about what was happening he immediately headed south to join the fight.
He joined up with a group of soldiers from Golani’s 51st Battalion near Ofakim, and “Moti took control of the forces” in the area, according to an officer on the scene that day. “For about two hours we fought at the junction until other forces showed up.”
Then Moti and five others headed toward Kibbutz Rei’m, where they were immediately greeted by gunfire upon entering. During the gunfight, Moti got shrapnel in his eye and a bullet in his shoulder, but tied up the wound himself and kept going, the officer said. Not long after, a terrorist opened fire from behind and shot Moti several times in the back, and he was declared dead during the fighting — two weeks before his 30th birthday.
He was buried on October 10 in Elkana. He is survived by his wife, Revital, their son, Lavi, 4, his parents, Esther and Benzion, and his sisters, Zehavit and Noa. His daughter, Ori, was born several months after he was killed.
Moti joined the army in 2013 and signed on as a career officer following the end of his mandatory service. He and Revital met when they were both serving in the army, and got married in 2016. In 2021 he began studies at Ariel University under the aegis of the army. During that time Moti and Revital tried several rounds of IVF to have another child, and also had a miscarriage, before finding out in June that she was pregnant.
At his funeral, former education minister Shai Piron, Moti’s former teacher, said he was “not the student we thought would become a warrior. Time and time again you would carry out a prank, accompanied by gentle laughter. We had many conversations… and toward the end of the high school, you picked yourself up, you made yourself anew. You taught all of us what willpower was.”
“You taught us all the power of control and choice, personal responsibility, growth,” added Piron. “Moti the leader, Moti the hero didn’t give up on the laughter, didn’t stop making us happy… you were a model of kindness and friendship.”
Revital told Ynet that on October 7, when Moti left the house, despite not having an active formal role in the army or being called up, “I had no fear or worry. Nobody could beat Moti, and he went to do what was necessary and to fight.”
Revital said the couple had hoped and waited for their second pregnancy for several years, “and we found out on our anniversary and it was the biggest gift. The pregnancy gave me strength and caused me to hold on to life” after Moti was killed. “I felt that Moti was inside me and it was true.” Ori was born in February, four months after Moti was killed.
Revital said that Lavi is “always trying to understand what it means and why I’m always crying. He wakes up in the morning and the first thing he asks is, ‘Where’s Dad?’ I am sure that Moti is watching over us, it would be just like him. He was always the first to run ahead.”
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