Ofek Arbib OBM helped everyone until the very last moment, when he saved the lives of his friends at the ‘Nova’
Staff Sgt. Ofek Arbib, was a person who cared about everyone. He could not bear injustice or distress in others. He always saw everyone around him: those who had nothing, those who needed a good word, help or a guiding hand. He was murdered by terrorists when he went to dance at the ‘Nova’ party. Before his death, he managed to call a friend who was at the party and warn him, and in addition saved the lives of two female friends. He was 21, just one month before his release from his position in the infantry.
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Ofek, the son of Ilana and Nissim, was born in Jerusalem. A younger brother to Snir, Meshi and Bar. After his parents separated, he lived with his mother and his sister Bar. His mother remarried, her partner’s daughters, Tal and Shahar, were for him sisters in every sense. Ofek was a child full of concern for the people he loved. He never stopped worrying about his parents and expressing his appreciation and love. “He was constantly worried about his father, he was constantly worried about me,” recalls Ofek’s mother, Ilana. “He would bring me the most beautiful flowers for Shabbat. I would tell him, ‘Ofeki, save the money. I don’t want it, you’re a soldier, you don’t have money.’ He said, ‘Mom, a flower brings a flower.’”
Ofek could not bear the distress of others and would run to help, even in places where others might look away. “He was sitting eating at a restaurant in Bat Yam and saw a mother and child asking for money,” Nissim recalls. “Within two to three hours he organized close to 8,000 shekels for her. He also paid her electricity bill. To this day we try to continue doing this. There was a very special bond between us, which is why the separation from him is so difficult.” Already as a child, Ofek was endowed with leadership skills. His sister, Bar Levana Arbib, says that as a child he always noticed children who needed reinforcement or help. He used his popularity positively, to assist weaker children. “Ofek was a kind of magnet,” Bar recalls. “In every setting he was in, he was always the positive leader. He was always the accepted friend, the guy everyone wanted to be near, and he always used his power for good. He always cared about and noticed the kids who were being boycotted, or who didn’t really have friends, and brought them in. And that’s it, he’s my friend now, no one comes near him.”
During his high school studies he met Erin, who studied with him, and they fell in love. Although after two years they decided to separate, they remained good friends and agreed in an unusual way that at the age of 24, after they traveled and began their life paths, they would return to a relationship and marry. Erin wrote: “My Ofek, the phrase ‘the salt of the earth’ was written about you, a real man, a ray of sunshine. Every place you enter, you bring only joy with your beautiful smile and small nose. How many memories I have of you, Ofek, how many moments when you made me the happiest girl in the world. I engrave them in my heart forever, because now I am left alone with these memories.”
Interim: ‘Now we need to give the final push, to lift everyone up’
Ofek believed that one must not give up, no matter how hard it is. He believed it was important to work hard in order to succeed. Ofek did everything he could to advance toward a meaningful career in the IDF. At the end of high school, Ofek joined the half-year pre-military preparatory program ‘Yeruham’ with two of his best friends. During this period in particular, he demonstrated and developed leadership ability, charisma, strength and ambition, positively influenced his friends and encouraged them to persevere. Ofek hoped that participation in the program would help him be selected for an elite unit in the army and later advance to officer training. In a letter to himself, Ofek wrote: “I believe and wish for myself that I will reach good places only through hard work, perseverance and sticking to the goal. In every corps and place and role I am in, I will give everything possible and the very best, no matter how hard and how frustrating. Through hard work you achieve good results. No matter how hard it is, that is not a reason to give up. Prove to yourself who you really are. Always remain true to yourself.”
On April 4, 2021, Ofek enlisted in the IDF and was assigned to the ‘Patan’ Battalion (101) of the Paratroopers Brigade in the infantry. He was happy to serve the country and felt that defending it was a privilege. Upon his enlistment, a family WhatsApp group was opened called ‘Ofek’s basic training journey diary,’ in which he documented his experiences every day via recordings. In addition, he prepared for himself a personal diary of recordings. The last time he recorded himself was in the summer of 2023, and in his words he tried to encourage himself ahead of the continuation of his training in the army. “You remember why you’re here. It’s a privilege. The intensity, the strength, what you expected, what you waited for, what you wanted to do, you don’t forget that … don’t give up. Even now when it’s the hardest … now we need to give the final push, lift everyone up … come on Arbib, give it everything.” In hindsight, his family saw his words as a kind of will.
‘I can’t talk, they’re shooting at me’
On the evening before the ‘Nova’ party, Ofek left a family holiday meal at his grandmother’s home and traveled with friends to the nature party held near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip. He was eagerly anticipating the party and spoke about it often. Ofek entered the party scene following his brother, Snir Argaman Maimon. “I remember he was a star there, people went crazy over him,” Snir recalls. “I enjoyed coming to see, to watch over him, to give him his space, to bloom, to fly, to meet people, to look from the side, like a big brother.”
Snir was supposed to join his brother and come dance with him at the ‘Nova’ party, but he did not feel well. “It was a pre-discharge party. A week later he was supposed to go on pre-discharge leave, and less than a month later to be released from the army,” Snir says. Snir hurried to call his brother the moment he heard on the news that something was happening at the ‘Nova’ festival. Ofek answered him, said that it was just a few interceptions and everything was fine, that they were already on the way to the car. When images and videos of the terrorists began arriving on Telegram, he answered and said only that he could not talk. He replied that he “can’t talk. They’re shooting at me, bye bye bye,” and hung up the phone. “Then the phone disconnected,” Snir recalls.
When the attack broke out, Ofek was among the first who managed to escape by car, while filming the moments of flight. After his conversation with Shnir, he called a friend who remained on the dance floor, warned him about what was happening and thus saved his life. At 7 a.m. in the area of the Yad Mordechai junction, he encountered terrorist gunfire together with the two female friends who were with him in the car. Ofek saved them and was hit by a bullet in the chest.
After the call with Ofek was disconnected, Snir did not give up, and together with family members they searched for him throughout the area for days, while the fighting continued. “I searched for him for four days in the field, I did not lose hope,” Snir recalls. His family continued to wait for news without losing hope. “I remember that I waited for him every day,” Ilana says. “For five days we heard nothing, until Nissim went and gave DNA samples. Then they identified that Ofek was among the dead.”
‘You learn to live with the wound’
Ofek invested a great deal in many hobbies. He loved to hike and went on the Israel Trail with his high school friends. He loved sitting by the sea, photography and practicing Muay Thai boxing. He had a motorcycle that he loved very much, and he planned with his father a joint ride around the globe. The two also shared another dream: to own Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
The family is now coping with the immense loss, and with all the dreams that were cut short. Nissim says that now they travel with Ofek’s flag around the world. “We planned to travel together on motorcycles, to go to Italy, to Morocco,” he explains. “I was already in Italy with his sister, we took his flag with us. And we take him everywhere.” Bar also says that the loss is present every minute. “We put up stickers and took photos with his flag, and he was with us every moment, but also missing. I think the most painful thing is that he won’t be at my wedding. I won’t know his children, and he won’t know mine.”
Snir explains that choosing life is part of their way of honoring Ofek and his life filled with giving and love. “We chose life and not death, because Ofek loved life,” he emphasizes. “When we spend Shabbat together and raise memories, we feel him with us. In terms of the date, two years have passed, for me it happened yesterday. It’s a wound that doesn’t heal. You learn to live with the wound.” “I feel that he lives in me,” Bar reinforces. “Something of him lives in me. I continue to live through his ‘doing good’. I continue to live his sentence: ‘Lifting everyone up, that’s the mission now.’ “Ofek would want us to continue, Ofek would want us to be happy,” Ilana says. “They gave their lives for us. They certainly would not want us not to live life.”
On the 30th day after his death, his family organized a motorcycle convoy in his memory on the Bat Yam promenade. On the evening of his 22nd birthday, in January 2024, family members gathered for an evening with music he loved. For the occasion, singer Alma Zohar sang his favorite song, “Shir Ahava Indiani” (Indian Love Song).
May his memory be a blessing.
Staff Sergeant
Ofek Arbib