“Roi volunteered to provide cover with his platoon commander at the gate while everyone else went into the protected space. They killed many attackers until they were killed themselves.”
On the morning of October 7, 2023 — just 10 months after enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces — Sgt. Roi Perry was on Shabbat duty at the Paga outpost near Nahal Oz. When Hamas launched its surprise attack, he had just returned from an operational patrol and managed to text his family about the rocket fire toward Israel.
5 View gallery
Sgt. Roi Perry, a fallen IDF soldier - his family released wine in his memory
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Shortly afterward, about 150 Hamas gunmen stormed the outpost and its surroundings in several waves. A mortar unit positioned near the base was attacked first. Inside the outpost, command soldiers led by platoon commander Capt. Dekel Suissa — who was killed alongside Perry at the gate — moved to man vulnerable positions.
For hours, about 25 soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion fought repeated waves of attackers. Fourteen Golani soldiers were killed at the outpost and nearby. Three armored corps soldiers were also killed in fighting in the area, along with an abducted soldier Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, whose body was returned to Israel in a deal more than two years later.
At 9:30 a.m., Perry’s father, Ofer, texted his son. Perry replied: “Dad, everything is OK. Tell everyone I love them.” His father later said he had not realized that his son had already been fighting for more than two hours. “I told him, ‘Take care of yourself,’ and he wrote back, ‘Of course,’” he recalled. At 10 a.m., Perry answered a call from his mother, told her he was not allowed to talk on the phone and reassured her that everything was fine. Forty-five minutes later, he was killed.
According to his father, as attackers closed in, Perry initially defended the rear of the outpost. He later volunteered to remain at the main gate with Suissa while the others entered the protected space. Suissa had ordered the troops inside after calling in artillery fire, and Perry chose to stay with him to provide cover. The two fought at the gate for about 15 minutes, killing many attackers before they were killed.
Perry is survived by his parents, Ofer and Ronit; his older brother, Ido; his twin brother, Itay; and his partner, Noyel. His father described him as someone who never complained, who lightened every situation and was loved by everyone. During the family’s shiva, friends repeatedly told them the same thing: “He was my best friend.”
Perry, his father said, made everyone feel that way. “He always joked, lifted everyone up and brought joy,” he said. Suissa had once described him as a soldier you could “assign a task and forget about — you knew it would be done.”
The family was notified of Perry’s death two days later. “They told us on Monday that he was killed in combat, but already on Saturday I felt he was gone,” his father said. “Roi always put others before himself.”
His father said Perry’s personal motto was “to smile through difficulty.” He played the flute, saxophone and drums, loved cooking and baking — especially chocolate chip cookies that friends now make in his memory — and had been a competitive tennis player in high school, later working as a coach before enlisting.
Since his death, the family has worked to commemorate him through fitness events, a memorial tennis tournament and other initiatives. Recently, they also dedicated a wine in his name. “There is a barrel of wine I bottled a month ago,” his father said. “The wine is called ‘Roi,’ and at Yehuda Winery in Shoresh there is also a wine named ‘Roi Perry.’”