During the first hours of the October 7th invasion, a 19-year-old Golani fighter made a split-second decision that would cost him his life when a Hamas grenade landed inside his armored vehicle.
By Hezy Laing
In the chaos of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched their unprecedented assault on southern Israel, 19-year-old Golani soldier Matan Abargel made a split-second decision that cost him his life and saved those of his comrades. Trapped under heavy fire near Kibbutz Nir Am, Abargel saw a live grenade enter his armored vehicle. He did not run from it. He threw himself onto it.
Abargel, from the community of Hermesh, was a fighter in the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade. He was the youngest of four children and had been serving in the IDF when the attack began. On that Shabbat morning, Golani forces were among the first Israeli troops fighting Hamas terrorists who had breached the Gaza border and infiltrated communities in the western Negev.
Abargel and six other soldiers were inside a Namer armored personnel carrier as they fought their way through the battle near Nir Am. According to fellow soldier Daniel Varach, the vehicle came under intense attack and was surrounded, leaving the soldiers with no easy way out. Then a Hamas terrorist threw a grenade into the vehicle.
Abargel immediately recognized the danger. Accounts from his comrades say he tried to deal with the grenade, then deliberately placed his body over it, absorbing the blast and shielding the other six soldiers. Varach, a combat medic, later recalled opening his eyes after the explosion and finding Abargel on top of him. Despite his mortal wounds, Abargel told his comrades, “I tried to do everything to protect the people of Israel.”
Abargel died from his wounds on October 7, aged just 19. The IDF subsequently promoted him posthumously from corporal to sergeant. His funeral was held on October 12 at the military cemetery in Hadera.
His sacrifice later became one of the defining stories of heroism from the October 7 battles. In 2025, an IDF investigation into the defense of the Nir Am area specifically highlighted Abargel’s actions, noting that he fell on the grenade to absorb its blast and shield his comrades.
Matan Abargel had only one life to give—and in a moment of unimaginable danger, he chose to use it to protect six others. His final act transformed a young soldier into a lasting symbol of courage, comradeship and self-sacrifice.
