Roni Eshel was supposed to finish her military service on Sunday and be released from the IDF. "Today Roni was supposed to cut her draft card at the induction center, and to our great regret it will not happen," said her father Eyal Eshel. "Every such day we pass is a waystation. A shocking stop in the crazy journey that we go through against our will."
In the photos from the day of her enlistment as a field observer at the induction center, Roni is seen smiling and excited. "We were all excited," her father said, struggling to hold back tears. During her service she got to know the other wonderful girls who were with her on October 7. She entered service with them, and it is the same group that disappeared, evaporated from the world. Roni loved her service, she loved being with them, and they loved each other."
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Killed IDF field observer Roni Eshel on the day of her induction into the IDF
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
He added that she "planned on the day of her release to travel in England, and then continue to New York and study cooking. Instead, we celebrate her release day without her."
Along with the grief and loss, for almost 10 months Eshel has been struggling to get answers.
"Already in the first days of the war, I saw that no one from the IDF was calling to update us on what was happening, and I realized that I was alone in this campaign, I had to conduct the investigation myself to understand what happened here on October 7. This situation continues throughout the last 10 months; In the end we are all alone, because the political and military echelons are dealing with nonsense and uninteresting issues, instead of focusing on action, including the attempt to return the hostages."
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Killed IDF field observer Roni Eshel on the day of her induction into the IDF
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Eshel is part of the Everything for Them forum, made up of the families of the fields observers who fell at the Nahal Oz base on October 7, who joined together in order to expose the omissions that happened that day and for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry. In addition, he works within the framework of the civil investigation committee whose establishment was announced last month , the purpose of which is to investigate the omissions that led to the disaster.
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Roni Eshel takes a selfie with her parents on induction day into the IDF
(צילום: באדיבות המשפחה )
"Look into Roni's eyes, those sparkling eyes," he tells the decision makers. "Look how happy she was that day. Look at her and explain to me, how did we get to this situation? Because no one has yet given an explanation that would put this question to rest. Where were you? Where were you months ago? Where were you that Saturday?"
"We are a group of citizens who took the reins into their own hands, we simply started doing the work in their place," he says. "I emphasize the word 'in their place', because this is something that was supposed to arise from day one from within the State of Israel, from within the leadership. But we had no choice but to take it upon ourselves. Roni's smile gives us a lot of strength to continue, and she tells me every night in our private conversations - 'Dad, keep going'. And that's what keeps me groudned, because otherwise I would have rotted long ago."