Lieutenant Yoav Maliaev, who served as the deputy communications officer of Battalion 77, fell in battle at the Yiftach outpost near Israel’s southern border on October 7.
His father, Alex, shared in a Reshet Bet interview about his son’s determination to serve in a meaningful role — specifically in a place most would avoid. The grieving father also spoke about the note his son wrote for his loved ones just moments before he was killed — a note that was only discovered after his death. Even in the most difficult moments of the morning of October 7, Yoav insisted on encouraging and supporting everyone around him.
Alex shared the story of his late son’s military journey:
“Yoav enlisted in the IDF’s dedicated officers’ track in the Telecommunications and Cyber Defense Corps, despite having some health issues. He graduated the course with distinction, and although he could have chosen to serve anywhere — he asked to be placed in Battalion 77 of the Armored Corps. When asked why he chose a place no one else wanted, he said, ‘Because even in the places no one wants to be — good people are needed too.'”
In the period leading up to October 7, there were riots along the border, and Yoav was troubled by malfunctions in four of the tanks.
“He was determined to fix them. He told us he was committed to getting it done. Late Friday night, he managed to repair the last tank, and then he went to sleep.”
On the morning of October 7, Yoav woke up to the sound of sirens and went to a protected shelter.
“At 6:45 AM he messaged us and his girlfriend that he was in a protected space and reassured us. After that, we didn’t hear from him again. At 9:00 PM, we were told he had arrived at the hospital and were asked to come. A weight lifted from our hearts because we knew he was in Israel and not abducted. At the hospital, we were told he had been killed.”
Alex described the efforts to understand what happened to Yoav that morning:
“After a few weeks, we got a situational picture from the deputy brigade commander of the 7th Brigade who conducted a debriefing. From survivors of the battle, we learned that Yoav was with 50 male and female soldiers in a protected shelter near the living quarters. With him were three cadets attached to his command. He told them to stay in the shelter with their weapons and not to follow him to the gate.”
“Yoav was the duty officer and knew that Naama Boni was on guard at the gate,” he continued. “He likely also knew that hundreds of terrorists had infiltrated. Yoav and Gabriel, a squad commander from Golani, ran to the gate — joined by four more: Natanel Young, Ilay Bar Sadeh, Ido Harush, and Yuval Ben Yaakov. They encountered around 15 terrorists who fired at them from dominating positions around the base. They returned fire for about an hour.”
During that difficult morning, Yoav continued to support and uplift his fellow soldiers.
“Gabriel told us that when they reached the gate, Yoav said to him: ‘Bro, you’re a killing machine, let’s do this together.’ One of the female soldiers who had worked with Yoav all week on those four tanks told us that he said to her: ‘Do you know how significant it is that there are now four more tanks at the fences that can fight?’ She replied, ‘No Yoav, you did that,’ and he answered: ‘No, you did it. And don’t ever forget that.'”
When the family received his belongings, among them was a small pocket notebook that he had been issued during basic training.
“We saw that on the back of the first page, there was faint handwriting. When we looked closely, we saw it was a message Yoav had written in his final minutes. He wrote:
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| Yoav’s message written in his last minutes |
‘The best 20 minutes of my life. We crawled all the way here. I’m wounded, and there’s a barrage now. Thinking of you and will think of you throughout the journey. I love you.’
We saw that on the first page, at the top, he had written:
‘Other side’.
He made sure that when we opened the notebook, we’d see the first page and then flip it over.”
“We later saw his phone, the calls he made to the operations officer, the doctor, and with Naama, Ido, and Gabriel. He felt fulfilled and that he had completed his mission in that critical moment,” Alex shared.
The heroic action of Yoav and his comrades cost them their lives (except for Gavriel, the lone survivor) but saved the rest of the soldiers at the base, as the terrorists did not succeed in infiltrating it as they did at Nachal Oz and other bases.
Yoav is survived by his parents, three siblings — Talia, Avner, and Harel — and his partner, Einav.
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