The light that never went out: The story of Master Sgt. Maor Gershoni, the soldier who always stayed true to himself
Master Sgt. Maor Gershoni, a combat soldier and D9 armored bulldozer operator in the Etzioni Brigade, was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 6, 2023. He was 24.
A native of Yokneam, Maor is survived by a loving family, a devoted partner and a close-knit circle of friends struggling to come to terms with his loss and determined to preserve the light he brought into their lives.
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Maor’s childhood and teenage years were closely tied to Yokneam and the Israeli Scouts movement. “I first met Maor in the Scouts. We really grew up together from childhood,” says his friend Liran Wolf. “For me, the Scouts were home for all of us.”
His friend Linoy Levi recalls how naturally their friendship developed. “When all the kids from the different schools started mixing and when we got to junior high, we discovered we were in the same class. It just felt so natural and so right.”
Close friend Uri Abu remembers those years through their shared love of soccer. “Yokneam is a small place. Maor and I both loved soccer. We became really close friends and went through every stage together, high school, the army. We had a very diverse but close-knit group of friends.”
A charismatic teenager, full of joy and unique charm
His friends remember him as charismatic, joyful and uniquely charming. “As a teenager, Maor was the funniest person I knew,” one of his friends says. “He knew how to drive the teachers crazy, but somehow did it charmingly. He was very mischievous, but also very sarcastic and charismatic, and he always knew exactly how to express himself. No matter where you put him, he knew how to manage.”
Uri adds: “There was always laughter around him. He was fun to be around and had a way of bringing people together. As we grew older, he became much more mature and developed a strong sense of conviction. He was someone who stayed true to himself and wasn’t easily influenced by others. He knew what path he wanted to take, believing things would work out how he wanted, but it was a good path.”
Linoy says his authenticity was one of the qualities that defined him. “He never pretended to be someone he wasn’t. He always truly stayed faithful to who he was. That was part of his charm.”
In 2021, while working at the Direct Insurance call center, Maor met Sapir Sadeh, who later became his partner. “We worked together on the same team at the call center. We knew almost everything about each other and spoke very openly, and at some point we became a couple,” Sapir recalls. “We simply decided to give it a chance, and it turned out wonderfully. I’m so glad we did.”
He was deeply committed to his service
Military service was an inseparable part of who Maor was. He served in the Combat Engineering Corps as a D9 operator and later moved into a command role.
“He really carved out his own path. He loved the military system,” his friends say, describing him with the Israeli slang term mur’al, meaning exceptionally motivated and enthusiastic about military service. He went on to complete a squad commanders course. “He really loved his service, the army and the feeling that he was doing something meaningful.”
On Oct. 7, that sense of mission took hold immediately. “When the war broke out, we started talking in our friends’ group chat. A few hours later, Maor simply sent a selfie of himself in uniform and wrote, ‘I’m on it.’”
Maor was among the first to report for reserve duty in the north, but he was determined to head south. “He was really pushing to get to Gaza, and the moment there was an opportunity to step up, he was the first to volunteer.”
When D9 operators were needed in Gaza, Maor had no hesitation. He went south, successfully completed his first mission, but during his second operation, an anti-tank missile struck his vehicle and he was killed instantly.
The news left his friends in complete shock. “People in the group were writing, ‘Maor fell,’ but we couldn’t believe it. I thought they meant he had literally fallen to the ground. I just didn’t understand.”
Looking back, they remember their final gathering with him on the Friday before his death, a meeting that later took on the painful weight of a last goodbye. “He had just come out of reserve duty and asked us to bring the high school yearbook. We flipped through it and laughed together.”
The project created in his memory
In the aftermath of his death, Maor’s friends developed an even deeper bond with his parents, Benny and Noga. “It became completely clear why he was such an incredible person. Maor got his humor from Benny and his sensitivity from Noga,” his friends say. “Benny and Noga are wonderful people. Sometimes they’re the ones giving us hope, energy and the strength to cope.”
In Maor’s memory, his friends launched the “Panda Loop” bag project, named after a panda tattoo he had on his arm. “There are probably around 50 pandas walking around Israel now. All of his friends got panda tattoos in his memory. Everyone who comes to the stand learns who Maor was.”
“He loved life. He would always tell me, ‘I love life,’” Sapir says, with pride and pain. “I’m proud of him for simply doing what he wanted to do. He was a hero who was meant to be a hero. That’s just who he was.”
Master Sgt. Maor Gershoni of the Etzioni Brigade was killed on Dec. 6, 2023. He was 24.
May his memory be a blessing.
Master Sergeant
Maor Gershoni