22-Year-Old Hero: Israeli Covered Grenade With His Body To Save His Beloved
- 15.10.2023, 13:08
- 12,310
He was a well-known activist and organizer of youth marches before the war.
One of the organizers of 2018 Israel's youth protests in Gaza border areas died in a Hamas attack five years later while protecting his beloved girlfriend.
On October 15, Matan Tsuri, Ynet correspondent, told the story of Neta Epstein from Kibbutz Kfar Azah.
In 2018, 17-year-old Neta became one of the organizers of a youth protest. It was a march from settlements located on the border with Gaza to Jerusalem. The protest was attended by thousands of young people who came to the Knesset to demand that deputies ensure the safety of residents of the region located on the line of fire.
Epstein was a 2018 senior at Shaar HaNegev School. “Young people from all over the country supported us,” he said in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. “This shows once again that the young people from all over the country understand perfectly well our problems and that we need someone to rely on.”
Last Saturday, October 7, Epstein died during a terrorist attack on villages on the border with Gaza. Terrorists broke into the house where Neta lived with his girlfriend Irene Shavit. “We were in contact from the very beginning of the attack,” said Neta’s mother, Ayelet Epstein. “Terrorists burst into our kibbutz and threw a grenade into the room with Neta and Irene inside. And then my son simply fell on the grenade and covered it with his body, saving his beloved. And he saved her. Irene survived, but Neta died like a real hero.”
Zohar Shpak from Kfar Az, who accompanied the youth march to the Knesset in 2018, said: “These guys asked for only one thing: ‘Let us grow up in silence.’ But they were asking about another kind of silence, not like that, and they are young forever now. Forgive us, Neta. We believed in an unspoken agreement signed between the citizens of the country and its leadership, and believed that if necessary, they would be able to protect us. Forgive us that we were mistaken."
