One thousand days have passed since the black Saturday of Oct. 7. On their phones, on the wall at home and in their thoughts, the families of the fallen are left with "the last photo" their loved one sent them, or one they received from friends during the shivah.
On the eve of the most recent Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism, "The Last Photo," a project by Israel Hayom and the OneFamily organization, was launched to commemorate those who fell in the Swords of Iron war. At its center is the Instagram page "The Last Photo," where photos and videos are published that, for the families, constitute the final documentation.
The initiative, named after fallen IDF soldier Sgt. Amit Regev, operates throughout the year. To mark the 1,000th day, we returned to the stories of the fallen and the families coping with the loss.
Staff Sgt. Itay Martsiano
Staff Sgt. Itay Eliyahu Martsiano fell on Oct. 7, and his family is now marking 1,000 days of longing and incomprehensible loss. Itay's last photo was taken in a car on the way to the south on Oct. 7, the day he fell.
His sister, Hila, shared: "On Oct. 7, Itay, a paratrooper, was home on weekend leave. When the attack began, he packed his wet uniform into his bag and headed south. On the way, he met several teammates who brought him a weapon, and they drove together to Sderot." Itay and another force he joined defended residents near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, fought a heroic battle and saved the kibbutz from a terrorist infiltration before they were hit. He was 20 when he died.
On his unit patch, Itay wrote: "When things are hard, raise your head, not your hands," a sentence that suited who he was. "Itay was light and a huge smile that could not be missed, an amazing boy, a true friend and a respected commander," his sister Hila Martsiano said. "These have been a thousand days of nonstop longing, in which anything can break me and trigger me all over again. Every time I see a soldier, a child with a big, wide smile like Itay's, every time a yeast cake is opened and every ball is tossed into the air, my heart tightens. It is not fair that we have to go on like this without him, without the beloved and successful child of the house.
"On Itay's birthday, Aug. 30, we will hold a volunteer day that has become a tradition. I invite good people from all over the country to join us for a meaningful day in memory of our Itay."
Details about the volunteer day will appear on the Instagram page in Itay's memory: remember_itaymartsiano
Master Sgt. (res.) Yishai Greenbaum
Master Sgt. (res.) Yishai (Netanel) Greenbaum left behind four children: Shaked, Yaala, Aluma and Zohar-Moshe, who miss their father. His wife, Hadass, remembers the last time he left the house. Their final photos were taken on Sept. 25, 2024, in the last hour before he left home for the final time.
He had been called up for his third round of reserve duty within a year. "A thought crossed my mind that this time we needed to take pictures before he left, so we took one photo of all of us together, and another photo of just the two of us," Hadass said.
During a battle in southern Lebanon, Yishai was critically wounded and evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Hospital, where he fought bravely for his life for 10 days. On Oct. 18, 2024, 16 Tishrei 5785, he died at the age of 38.
Yishai was a devoted and deeply involved father. Optimistic by nature, he loved life, loved people and saw the good in each of them. In civilian life, he was a clinical social worker and ran the unit for the prevention and treatment of domestic violence in the city of Lod. After his death, his organs were donated to five people, including his good heart and his kidneys.
"Almost two years have passed, and the longing does not let up," Hadass said. "We wake up with it in the morning, go to sleep with it at night and carry it with us throughout the day. The children are growing and developing, showing courage and strength anew every day. In the choice to get out of bed in the morning despite the heaviness that pulls you down, and from there to keep going and make it to school, frameworks and activities. To get through another ceremony, another end-of-year party without him, and to normalize, as much as possible, a routine within lives that changed in an instant.
"Yishai was a person full of joy and love, and the more he is missing, the more he is also felt. Our home, despite the immense absence, is full of Yishai's spirit of joy and love, which accompanies and recharges us day by day. And as Yishai would surely have wanted, we cling to life. In his light and in his memory."
Staff Sgt. Lior Steinberg and Staff Sgt. Omer Van Gelder
At the shivah for Staff Sgt. Lior Steinberg, a Givati Brigade soldier who fell in Gaza in June 2025, a young woman arrived who, until that moment, had been a stranger to his mother, Orly.
On her phone was chilling documentation: the last photo of Lior, about 20 minutes before the explosion that caused his death.
The photo, which she had not known about, was not only a memory, but the beginning of a friendship with Tehila, the mother of Staff Sgt. Omer Van Gelder, also a Givati soldier who was killed in the incident when the Hummer in which they were traveling hit an explosive device.
"The last photo was taken in a staging area in Gaza near Jabaliya, about 20 minutes before Lior and his friends fell," Orly said. "Lior was a combat medic. He, Omer and their friend, the late Ofek Berhane, served together in Givati's mobility platoon and escorted a fire truck so it could extinguish a Namer armored personnel carrier that had caught fire. While they were escorting the fire truck, on the way out, the Hummer they were in hit an explosive device and they were killed on the spot."
In the selfie Lior sent to the young woman he had just begun dating, only half his face appears, along with a shy smile. But behind him, in the background, is his friend, Staff Sgt. Omer Van Gelder, who was also captured by the camera lens. In fact, it is also the final documentation for Van Gelder's parents. A few months earlier, he had been part of the force that eliminated arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar.
"Before the incident, I still didn't know Tehila," Orly said. "I had seen her at a parents' gathering, but we were not friends. When I sent her the photo, she told me, 'Yes, someone sent this to me.' Since we met, it has become a very deep friendship."
Lior completed basic training, took a mobility course and, during the war, also completed a medics course, after which he returned to Gaza. "When we spoke before the Shavuot holiday, he told me he would arrive on the 11th. I was happy because I thought he meant 11 in the morning. And he told me: Mom, I'm only coming back on June 11." But on June 2, 2025, Lior was killed. He was only 20.
That same day, the military casualty notification officers also knocked on the door of the Van Gelder family and informed them that their eldest son, Omer, had fallen in battle. He was only 22.
"I know every mother says this, but Omer was something rare in this world," Tehila said. "He had a light and positive energy that are hard to describe in words. He was gifted, with vast knowledge and a sharp mind. He volunteered with Magen David Adom and was an instructor and senior medic. He dreamed of becoming a trauma doctor, and for that reason he turned down prestigious programs. He took into account that he had seven years of medical studies ahead of him. He enlisted in Givati after two years at a pre-military academy. He had knowledge of weapons, and very quickly he was sent to a squad commanders course, became a training NCO and, after a year, returned to Givati because they were looking for more good commanders."
