7 · X · 2023 14 · X · 2025
Our Story

Behind every piece, a name.

Captain Daniel Perez
77th Battalion · 7th Armored Brigade
22 Years · 7 October 2023
↓ Scroll
tank commander

He was twenty-two.

Photograph · Family Provides

A single dignified portrait of Daniel sits here.

Captain Daniel Perez
Born South Africa · Yad Binyamin, Israel
77th Battalion · 7th Armored Brigade
memory
Photograph · Family Provides

A second portrait — uniform, or earlier — takes this frame.

A Life · In Brief
South Africa
Daniel was born in South Africa. The family later made aliyah, settling in Yad Binyamin.
Nov 2020
He enlisted in the IDF and joined the Armored Corps. He completed the tank commander's course, then an officer's course.
7 Oct 2023
As platoon commander, he led his crew in defense of the Nahal Oz outpost. He was killed in action. He was twenty-two.
14 Oct 2025
After more than two years, his body was returned to Israel. He was laid to rest at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, with full military honours.
נחל עוז Nahal Oz
Scene · 7 October 2023

The morning at Nahal Oz.

06:29
First rocket sirens across southern Israel.
06:45
Hostile force breaches the Nahal Oz perimeter.
07:00
Team Perez engages — outnumbered, holding ground.
— Hours —
A defense fought tank-against-foot, position by position.
Team Perez Merkava
Subject · Tank Perez

One tank.
One crew.

A Merkava of the 77th Battalion, 7th Armored Brigade. One of thirteen tanks deployed to the southern border that morning.

Team Perez · Those Who Fell
Captain Daniel PerezPlatoon Commander
Staff Sergeant Itay ChenCrew
Sergeant Tomer LeibovitzCrew
Mount Herzl
II · The Return
14 October 2025
Two years and seven days. He came home.

"A commander with composure and extraordinary courage."

— President Isaac Herzog · eulogy at Mount Herzl
forge memory
IV · The Work

Metal became the language for what could not be said.

Adina Perez is a metalworker. Tanks recur in her work — small ones in bronze, larger ones in steel — because the form of his service is part of the form of his memory.

The name on the door is the family name. The work it produces is in tribute to it.

— A.P.

For Daniel. For all of them.
May their memory be a blessing.

View the pieces →

Sources & Further Reading