Staff Sgt. Hallel Shmuel Saadon, 21, son of Elad and Dvora Saadon, was a Nahal soldier from Ma’ale Michmas. He was killed on October 7 while battling a Hamas invasion near Kibbutz Sufa.
Hallel spent time as a camper and counselor at Camp Moshava in Pennsylvania, as his grandfather was the camp’s longtime assistant director and his parents regularly worked there.
The camp’s director, Alan Silverman, told a local news outlet that “Hallel was in a bunker guarding along the fence in the south where the terrorists broke through,” adding that “three of the soldiers including Hallel were killed as they tried to prevent them from crossing in, but there was a huge number of them.”
At a ceremony held at a horse ranch in Israel, which staged a competition in his honor, his mother Devora said, “Hallel was a guy with a heart of gold. He would help everyone without making a thing of it and without expecting anything in return.”
“Also during battle on Simchat Torah [on October 7], he fell as he was protecting his comrades,” she said. “He was a cowboy in his heart, deeply connected to horses, to animals and to nature,” she said, noting how much he loved the ranch and taking part in its competitions, including overseas.
He is survived by his parents, and his four younger siblings Tamir, Nevo, Sahar and Uriel, and grandparents Alan Silverman and Hana Greenberg.
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