“I’m continuing my grandfather’s path,” said SFC (res.) Yonatan Shalev, grandson of the late Lt. Col. Shaul Shalev, who was killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Yonatan bears a resemblance to his grandfather in photos, but their bond runs deeper: both are the pride of Gabriella Shalev, Shaul’s widow and Yonatan’s grandmother. “Yonatan’s grandfather was a hero,” she said. “Even now, as then, it is the younger generation that will save the country.”
Gabriella described her late husband as her “teenage love.” The two married after six years together and had two children, Eran and Narkis. On their ninth wedding anniversary, October 6, 1973, war broke out. Shaul, who had just been appointed commander of Battalion 184 in the Sinai, led his troops into battle.
Shaul had joined the paratroopers in 1959 before transferring to the Shaked reconnaissance unit after a parachuting injury. He later fought in the Six-Day War and the War of Attrition as part of the Armored Corps. “He loved the power of the tank,” Gabriella recalled. In August 1973, just a month before the war, he was named commander of the 184th Battalion.
For three days at the Suez Canal, he led defensive battles, including a daring rescue in which he pulled 33 soldiers out of an Egyptian siege at Fort Purkan. Hours later, on October 9, Shaul was killed in battle at the “Television” outpost. He was 33. “I promised our children they were not orphans — that they had me,” Gabriella said, recalling how she broke the news alone.
In the year following his death, Gabriella compiled his life story and wartime letters into a book while completing her doctorate. She went on to a distinguished academic career in law, later becoming Israel’s first female ambassador to the United Nations in 2008. “With all I have accomplished, my greatest joy is my family,” she said.
Fifty years and a day after her husband’s death, her grandson Yonatan also answered the call. Fresh from a third round of reserve duty in Israel’s north, the Maglan commando veteran and founder of the “Shoulder to Shoulder” reservists’ movement said his grandfather’s legacy guides him. “I told my unit about the heritage he left behind,” he said, adding that even his own love letters were inspired by Shaul’s. “It’s important we continue telling stories of bravery like my grandfather’s. Because of heroes like him, we have a country.”
But alongside his grandfather’s memory, Yonatan carries the loss of comrades killed in Israel’s recent war. “This Memorial Day, the first outside the army framework, I’ll have to decide which grave to visit,” he said quietly. “There isn’t a day I don’t think of them. Much of the burden I carry is the responsibility I feel.”
Both Gabriella and Yonatan voiced hopes for the safe return of the remaining 48 hostages and healing for wounded soldiers. “Politicians must prove worthy of the sacrifice and ensure a better future,” Gabriella said. Yonatan added: “My grandfather’s sacrifice is the same as that of today’s fighters. I have hope in our generation, because I’ve seen it in the lives of my friends Yehonatan Deutsch and Roee Marom, who gave everything on the battlefield. Thanks to people like them, we will continue to live here.”
First published: 09:43, 10.03.25