Sgt. Guy Bazak wrote in his journal at the end of his training that he had “become a fighter ready to go wherever needed with determination,” and that he had learned “what friendship means, measured by how much you are willing to give for your friend.” Three months later, he was killed in battle at Kibbutz Kissufim on Oct. 7, 2023. He was 19.
Guy enlisted in Golani’s 51st Battalion, 25 years after his father, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yuval Bazak, commanded the same unit. On the morning of Oct. 7, Guy was spending Shabbat at the Kissufim outpost with his platoon. When the surprise attack began, he rushed to a nearby shelter. Before heading into battle, he managed to answer a WhatsApp message from his sister: “You don’t understand what’s happening here. You can feel the floor, the ground is shaking,” he wrote.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yuval Bazak presents his son Guy Bazak with the Golani beret
(Video: Courtesy of the family)
Moments later, a report came over the radio of gunfire in nearby Kibbutz Kissufim. At the same time, Sgt. Tomer Nagar, the platoon’s machine gunner on duty in the bunker, was attacked by dozens of Hamas fighters. He held them off for several minutes, killing many, before running out of ammunition and being killed at 7:22 a.m.
As this happened, Guy and others in the shelter returned to their rooms, geared up and ran toward the center of the kibbutz to defend its residents. Meanwhile, dozens of Nukhba terrorists armed with rifles, RPGs and grenades moved through the fields toward the community.
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From Guy's notebook, less than three months ago Oct. 7
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
As the platoon’s designated marksman, Guy was responsible for scanning the southern sector. When the attackers reached about 150 meters from the force, he spotted them through his scope and opened fire, killing several. Heavy exchanges of fire followed. For an hour and a half, a small group of Golani soldiers fought against dozens of terrorists. In radio recordings later recovered from the attackers, Hamas fighters can be heard saying, “There’s a sniper here shooting and preventing us from advancing, he has already killed four of us.” The group eventually withdrew and did not enter the kibbutz.
But the battle continued. More groups of Hamas fighters advanced from the north and south. Guy and his comrades pressed forward, fighting at close range and killing more attackers. At one point, the force reached the area near the kibbutz kindergarten. Guy and his partner, Noam Ganesh, took cover behind a tree when gunfire erupted from another direction. Ganesh was wounded in the hand and could no longer fight. Guy bandaged him and evacuated him under fire.
Guy and the unit’s machine gunner were then sent ahead to cover the other troops. They took cover near a house. Heavy fire erupted. It was 10:20 a.m. Guy was hit in the chest and killed.
“Guy was an exceptional child from the day he was born,” his father Yuval says proudly. “On the day he enlisted, I told him, ‘From the day you were born, people said you were special. It turns out we didn’t know how much.’”
He describes Guy as someone who perceived the world differently. “He saw and experienced things in a unique way. He was incredibly creative. He was playful to an extreme, but also serious when it mattered.”
Yuval says Guy lived by his own code. “It’s rare to meet people who see differently, think differently and live differently — and are completely unbothered by it. He didn’t care what anyone said or thought. He had his own way.”
Friendship was central to him, Yuval adds, recalling the eulogies from Guy’s friends. “They said, ‘Not many times in life do you grow up with someone — and also grow because of them.’ It’s an extraordinary thing to hear. Guy taught them what friendship is.”
Guy never lived in his father’s shadow despite joining the unit his father once led. “He didn’t want to be ‘the son of’ — and he wasn’t,” Yuval says. “He didn’t try to prove anything. He wanted to do what mattered to him, in his own way. That’s how he lived and how he died — sacrificing his life and saving many others.”
Alongside Sgt. Guy Bazak, eight other soldiers were killed in the fighting at Kibbutz Kissufim: Vitaly Skipkevich and Aviel Malkamo of the Egoz unit, and Staff Sgt. Omri Peretz, Staff Sgt. Regev Amar, Staff Sgt. Adam Agmon, Sgt. Matan Malka, Sgt. Lavi Buchnik and Sgt. Bar Yankilov of the Paratroopers’ 450th Battalion of the Infantry School.
First published: 12:10, 11.28.25