In March 2024, after long months of intense fighting in the Gaza Strip, Capt. Alon Shchupak, an officer in the Egoz Unit, discovered he had a rare form of cancer. Last week, after more than two years of fighting the disease and never once stopping believing he would recover, he died in the hospital at just 25.
“It took an aggressive strain of disease with a frequency of one in 5 million to defeat him,” his father, Haim, told ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, moments after accepting a certificate of excellence on his son’s behalf from Chief Infantry and Paratroopers Officer Brig. Gen. Omer Cohen.
Cohen, who served at the start of the Iron Swords war as commander of the Commando Brigade, spoke at the ceremony about Alon’s actions. At the time, Alon led his Egoz team in battles in the Gaza border communities and later inside the Strip.
“At the start of the maneuver, after a 12-hour night assault, at first light we received real-time intelligence about a living hostage who was apparently being held near us in a refugee camp. When the order was given to go in, Alon charged straight into the hornet’s nest without hesitation. That was how he was throughout the fighting. Always first, always taking the initiative,” Cohen said.
Alon enlisted in the Golani Brigade and from there reached the Egoz Unit after successfully completing the brigade's special units selection process.
“He was assigned to the team of Shila Har Even, who was his team commander,” his father Haim said. “He was a revered figure in his eyes, the whole team admired Shila, and during the shiva we heard that Shila also saw Alon as a special person. When he finished his track in Egoz, Shila recommended him for officers’ course, and afterward he served as a platoon commander for Golani recruits and then returned to Egoz.”
‘He saw it as a mission’
Haim said proudly that Alon’s recruit platoon finished as the outstanding platoon of its cycle.
“He saw it as a mission to pass on his knowledge and experience from Egoz to Golani,” he said.
When Alon returned to the Egoz Unit, he was offered the role of deputy company commander, but insisted on commanding a team.
“They told him there was a worn-down team, near the end of its road, and he took them,” his father said. “He led them in the fighting during Operation Home and Garden in Jenin, and on October 7, they were everywhere.”
On the morning of the massacre, Alon was in the West Bank, and in the early hours, he set out south on his own initiative. Together with his team, he fought in the difficult battles in the Gaza border communities and later inside the Strip.
During those first months of fighting, he began to feel unwell and lost weight, but thought it was a natural reaction by his body to the conditions in Gaza and to what he had been through.
“Toward the end of January, Alon’s team was supposed to be released, and as a result, he was appointed weapons company commander in Egoz. He loved it, because he always loved fixing and upgrading things and had a technical instinct, so it fit him perfectly,” his father said. “When he finally had time, he went for tests, and that was when they discovered the cancer. It was in March 2024.”
Alon underwent complex surgery in which 70% of his liver was removed, but he insisted on continuing his military service and returning to Egoz.
“He also dreamed of joining the Yamam,” his father added, referring to the Israel Police’s elite counterterrorism unit, “but in the meantime he wanted to return to combat.”
Two months after the surgery, he recovered, but because his medical profile had been lowered and no longer allowed him to return to a combat role, he decided to complete the military track for physical training officers. Alon successfully completed the course and was appointed physical training officer at an 8200 base in Military Intelligence, where he served until his death.
“Even there, he did things. He didn’t focus only on his own role. He upgraded the base’s security system, trained the security unit and turned the guards into a kind of commando team. That was Alon. That was how he always did things,” his father said.
The family expressed gratitude to his commanders “for their support and friendship during his service in 8200 until his death.”
‘He served until the end’
The certificate of excellence that Alon’s family received this week had been decided on long before, in recognition of his actions during the war. He had been recommended as the Chief Infantry and Paratroopers Officer’s Independence Day honoree by Col. Avi Dahan, head of the Combat Fitness Department.
“The current chief infantry and paratroopers officer was the Commando Brigade commander during the war, and it turns out he knew who Alon was and had heard about him. It was very moving when he spoke about him at the ceremony and said that Alon had turned his team into the leading team in Egoz,” his father said.
About six months after the complex surgery, in November 2024, Alon underwent another operation after a metastasis was found. At the start of 2025, he underwent surgery again after additional metastases were discovered.
He later joined an experimental study in Germany focused on his type of cancer, but made his participation conditional on receiving treatments over weekends so that he could continue going to the base as usual during the week.
“There were ups and downs, but Alon insisted on continuing to serve until the end. Last October, he even managed to fly to London and Paris with Gaia, his close friend from high school, and with his sister Shani. He was always optimistic,” his parents, Haim and Meirav, said.
His father said Alon fought until the final moment, recalling how three months ago he decided to buy a new car.
“He went and bought a Tesla, and he had so many plans ahead. He was already thinking about how to get to the ceremony to receive the certificate of excellence, and later to take a vacation in Eilat and travel. He was very optimistic until the last moment,” Haim said.
Shani, his older sister, said: “As long as his body allowed him to train, he trained so he could get to the Yamam. He believed he would make it there in the end.”
‘He touched so many people’
During the shiva, Alon’s family heard many stories about him that they had not known before.
“He left a mark everywhere he was, and we are hearing how meaningful he was to his soldiers and his people. His pre-army fitness coach said, ‘Don’t remember Shchupak. Be Shchupak, continue his path,’” his father said. “In 8200, too, they described him as a very meaningful person. They were his second home until the very last moment.”
His sister Shani said his soldiers from the Egoz team described how, despite their short time together, “he was the best thing that happened to them in their service.”
“His company commander from Golani said he had a very unique command style. He touched so many people,” she said.
His younger brother, Ron, said: “Alon was a person full of love, compassion and understanding, who was patient with everyone.”
Friends, he said, “told us how comfortable they felt with him, how easy it was for them to trust him, share with him and open up to him, and how he accepted everyone with open arms.”
That continued in the army, Ron added. “His friends from training in Egoz told us how, in the hardest moments, he knew how to support each one of them in the way that suited him. That says so much about him as a person.”
Ron said that people who did not know about Alon’s condition told the family they never would have guessed it, “because he did not stop for a moment.”
“He kept going and did what he wanted until the end. Everything was exactly perfect and down to the smallest details, without cutting corners, without avoiding responsibility,” he said.
Alon’s mother, Meirav, said that before he died, “he asked the oncologist that if he reached a point where these were his final days, not to artificially prolong his life.”
“He was a very sensitive and gentle child, as much as he was a fighter and a combat soldier. He was very opinionated, and he also loved his family very much. He always worried about his grandmother and everyone,” she said.
His father said that even in his youth, teachers described him as “an exceptional child in his behavior.”
“He was always respectful and served as a positive example to others. One teacher told me Alon was a positive leader at school and had a good influence on his classmates. That was Alon: a very modest and humble person, a quiet leader, someone people looked at and took an example from. Alon’s starting point was always to help others first,” he said.