Wife of Former IDF Chief Herzi Halevi on Morning of Oct 7: “He Kissed the Mezuzah and Told Me – Gaza Will Be Destroyed”

Sharon Halevi, wife of former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, gave her first public interview this week, recounting the harrowing hours of October 7 and the deep emotional aftermath.

Speaking to Tomer Zisser, widow of Maj. Eli Zisser, who was killed that day, in a podcast titled “And You Shall Chose Life,” Sharon described her personal trauma, her husband’s quiet farewell, and her enduring sense of responsibility.

Sharon described the tragic morning of October 7. “He realized that it was war. I didn’t understand yet, not right away. We didn’t turn on the TV because it was a holiday. He left very early, well before 7:00. He took the tefillin with him, and this always happened to me with him when there was an occurrence of this sort, when he took the tefillin, my heart would sink. I knew he wasn’t coming back, because tefillin are put on every morning. He kissed the mezuzah and told me – ‘Gaza will be destroyed.’”

She later reminded him of his words, but he had no memory of saying them. “I was really scared when he told me that, because I knew it was true. He disappeared, and that was it. He spoke to me once on Saturday, very briefly. He wasn’t him. I was very worried, and I told the kids: ‘You don’t watch any videos.’

Sharon recalled watching the footage of the jeep in Sderot. “For a long time I thought it was a fake, but as soon as they realized there were hostages, I realized the situation was not good.”

“On October 10, I cried terribly, because I finally lost my mind,” she continued. “I remember a huge panic. I was terrified because I didn’t know what had happened and I didn’t know what was going on with the runner and what he knew.”

She described the small, symbolic act that marked her emotional shift: “His clothes from Simchat Torah Eve, Friday night, were lying in the bedroom. For three days I saw them and just didn’t touch them, and I knew that at some point I had to take them to the laundry. It was like a rite of passage for me. I understood that the moment I put them in the laundry, it was a signal that the previous life was gone and something else was beginning. It was like a grieving process, and doing that was hard.”

Sharon also addressed the painful reality of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza, now 671 days since their abduction. “The feeling of guilt for the kidnapped people accompanies me not because I am someone important, but as a human being. It is the most natural human feeling. My senses have not become numb.”

“No victory is a victory for me, I feel very hurt by it,” she added. “They ask me and the runners if we are doing life now, going on the big trip? We are not in that place at all, but in a place of responsibility. The big break is in realizing that we have no control.”

At the close of the interview, Sharon turned to host Tomer Zisser with tears in her voice, asking forgiveness for the loss of her husband Eli, who died under Herzi Halevi’s command. “I want to ask you for forgiveness. Forgiveness. I feel the need to ask for forgiveness for the fact that your future with Eli was destroyed.”

“There was not a single day in Herzi’s life that he was smug or disrespectful of anything,” Sharon said. “I really hope that there will be a state investigation committee and that my children and grandchildren will not learn the facts from the wrong sources. This is important for learning, and for moving forward, not for accusations. I ask your forgiveness because he was in this chair, and Eli was killed on his watch. Eli and many others. This hurts me very much and will never stop hurting me.”