Captain Eliav Haim Tzapalamus, a 21-year-old IDF officer from Haifa who fell in southern Lebanon last Thursday, had planned to attend comedian Guy Hochman’s show this coming Saturday night with his girlfriend, Inbar.
The couple’s planned evening will never take place. Hochman has announced that the seat reserved for the fallen officer will remain empty in his memory.
On Monday, Hochman shared a message Tzapalamus had sent his girlfriend after surprising her with tickets to the show.
“I bought us tickets. Hopefully I’ll get leave to come home, hahaha," Eliav wrote, referring to the possibility that he would be able to leave his military duties and attend the performance. Days later, he was killed during operational activity in Lebanon.
Hochman said Inbar had shared the exchange with him and announced plans for a special tribute during the show.
“My heart is broken. Captain Eliav Haim Tzapalamus fell in Lebanon this week, and this is what his girlfriend Inbar just sent me. The engineering officer and romantic at heart had surprised her once again with tickets to my show. He will no longer be coming," Hochman wrote.
“Eliav’s seat, in honor of this Israeli hero, will remain reserved on Saturday night. We will place flowers and an engineering corps flag on it and stand in his honor. We will remember him and preserve his memory," he added.
Hochman concluded with a message of support for the officer’s loved ones and comrades: “Inbar, the Tzeflamous family and the 603rd Battalion, we stand with you."
Captain Eliav Haim Tzapalamus served as a combat engineering officer in the 603rd Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade.
Last Thursday, during an operation by forces from the 7th Brigade in the Litani area of southern Lebanon, a military Humvee carrying the soldiers overturned.
Tzapalamus was killed in the accident, and three other soldiers were lightly injured. The wounded were evacuated to a hospital for treatment, and their families were notified.