Eden Nimri

From Modiin. The middle daughter of her parents, Sharon Yael and Michael, and sister to Hadar and Noga.
She was a smart, beautiful, smiling girl, very curious and sociable. Eden spread unconditional love and optimism, tolerance, compassion, consideration for others, courage, and humility. In her childhood, Eden studied at Yachad Modiin School (a school combining religious and secular students) until the end of 9th grade, and from there, in 10th grade, transferred to Mor High School.

From the age of 6, Eden swam with the “Maccabi Park Hamaim Reut” swimming club. She was a competitive swimmer until the age of 19 and participated in national and international competitions. Her strongest events were the 100 and 200 meter backstroke, the 200 and 400 meter individual medley, as well as 5 km and 10 km open water swims. Alongside swimming, she was an outstanding student, studied in the Bar-Ilan program, and in high school chose advanced studies at the 5-unit level in physics, mathematics, theater, and English.

Eden planned to serve as an outstanding athlete, like many of her friends, and afterwards travel to the United States to study in college with a swimming scholarship. But after passing the screening process for the Air Force flight course, Eden chose to enlist for meaningful military service. This was a very difficult decision, and in December 2019 she competed in her final Israeli championship and tearfully parted from the sport she loved so much. In January 2020 she enlisted in the flight course, and after several months transferred to the Artillery Corps, where she trained and served as a combat soldier and team commander in the Sky Rider Unit – an elite infantry unit of the Artillery Corps operating unmanned aerial vehicles.

Eden and her team (4 female soldiers) served on the northern border, but on Wednesday, October 4, 2023, arrived at the Nahal Oz outpost on the Gaza border in order to replace a team that had gone on leave for the Simchat Torah holiday. On the morning of Saturday, October 7, a murderous terrorist attack was carried out against Israel by Hamas. At 6:30 a.m., loud sounds of rocket fire were heard. Eden, together with her team, ran in pajamas with their weapons to the shelter adjacent to the soldiers’ living quarters. In the shelter they met 24 additional unarmed female soldiers (29 in total) from the Border Defense Corps and the Gaza Division (observers, operations room coordinators, medics, communications personnel, intelligence collection personnel, and others), whom they did not know, while only Eden’s team, the Sky Rider team, was armed. Eden took command of the shelter’s defense and took responsibility for all the soldiers, and through leading from the front prepared an ambush for the terrorists – Eden positioned herself at the entrance closest to where the terrorists would enter and positioned her 4 fighters at the entrance nearest the living quarters. Eden calmed the soldiers and instructed the fighters to chamber rounds and organized firing positions to defend the shelter.

At around 7:45 a.m., terrorists entered the shelter, and thanks to the ambush she had prepared, terrorists were killed in the exchange of fire, but they were many and threw grenades into the shelter. Eden remained to fight them and created a “wall of fire” that prevented their entry, and when the ammunition ran out, she fought them with her bare hands. In doing so, Eden gained precious time and enabled 11 female soldiers (4 Sky Rider fighters and 7 others) to run from the shelter to rooms where they hid (where they waited about 7 hours until they were rescued alive). In addition, 7 observers were kidnapped (6 returned alive, and one was returned deceased). Eden fell in a heroic battle, thereby saving the lives of 17 out of the 29 soldiers who were in the shelter.

Eden, a swimmer who could have served as an outstanding athlete, volunteered for the Air Force flight course and later chose to serve as an officer in the special “Sky Rider” unit.

May her memory be blessed.