The fiancées of IDF soldiers who fell on or after October 7 will be recognized as widows or widowers of a member of the security forces under a law approved by the Knesset on Tuesday.
The law will also apply to fiancés of terror victims, policemen, jailers, the Knesset guard and other members of the defense establishment, including Mossad and Shin Bet.
For the first time, the law recognizes IDF soldiers' fiancés, entitling them to five years of monthly compensation of NIS 10,000, funding for a bachelor's degree and medical treatment including medication, counseling and tests. Additionally, they will receive emotional and psychological support for 10 years.
The bill was tabled by Ofir Katz of the Likud Party, Meirav Cohen of Yesh Atid and Michal Waldiger of the Religious Zionist Party.
The bill stipulates that a person engaged to the deceased at the time of their death, regardless of cohabitation, and who can prove intent to marry, will be entitled to a monthly stipend for five years from the date of death, akin to the stipend a childless widow receives.
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"Engagement is a clear and binding declaration of intent to establish a joint home and live together, and the Defense Ministry must see them as a sufficient condition in the same way that maintaining a joint household without marriage is currently a sufficient condition for the spouses of male and female soldiers who were killed in the military campaign," the explanatory notes to the bill read.
"Yes, it is proposed to recognize those who were engaged to a fallen soldier as entitled to rights according to the law of families of soldiers who were killed in the campaign."
Katz called the passing of the bill "life itself." He said "I took it upon myself to correct this injustice and I am excited that I was privileged to do so. Their life partners fell for the State of Israel and the State of Israel must give them support in return; We did justice."
"This is the least we can do for women who lost the love of their lives and all their dreams of a life together were cut short in one moment. It is important to recognize their pain and give them the tools that will allow them to recover and hopefully rebuild their lives," Cohen said.
During the Knesset debates on the bill, Ravid Damti, Naama Dopelt and Noa Rubin, fiancées of Captain Oshri Moshe Butzhak, Captain Kfir Franco and Captain Ariel Reich, who were killed in the Gaza war, participated.
Orphan Families Day will be marked on Hanukkah
On Tuesday, the Knesset approved the Orphans' Families Day bill. This law designates the first day of Hanukkah, the 25th of Kislev, as an annual remembrance day for orphaned families. It will be observed with a special discussion in the Knesset plenum and some parliamentary committees, as well as in the President's Residence.
"The justification for our very existence as a nation is our being a just society that does not forget its orphan families. The bill proposes to establish an annual national day of observance, on the first day of the Hanukkah holiday. Hanukkah is the holiday during the darkest time of the year to bring light to every household and to give the household and the family the strength, ability and power to light a Hannukkah menorah outside the door of its house," according to the bill.
"On this day, our public responsibility, all of us, to the families of the orphans in the State of Israel, as part of the communal, social and national strength of the country, will be marked. This is the most suitable day, according to Jewish tradition, to bring light to those whose world has been darkened and there is a great fear that they will be forgotten."