Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, changed a law that provided state support only to the widows and widowers of married soldiers to now grant the same rights to the concubines of gay soldiers, after Omer Ohana, the partner of a special forces reservist, was killed in an attack on October 7, two weeks before their gay “marriage”, which is not recognized in Israel, reports AFP.

From now on, “all co-residents,” gay and straight, can receive widow’s benefits, sums up Yorai Lahav-Hertsanu, an elected member of the centrist Yesh Atid party, which helped pass the amendment.

Partners of hostages or missing persons can also benefit from this support, regardless of gender, according to the lawmaker, who welcomes “a big step towards equality”, according to News.ro.

This is the result of the struggle that 28-year-old Omer Ohana waged for several weeks after the death of his concubine Sagi Golan.

The two reservists had lived together for six years and planned to “get married” on October 20, after which they would go on a honeymoon trip to Costa Rica.

“It was more of a party with a ceremony,” Omer explains to AFP in their apartment in central Herzliya, because “same-sex partners cannot get married in Israel,” where only religious marriages are recognized.

However, a same-sex marriage concluded abroad can be recognized there.

30-year-old Sagi died on the night of October 7-8 during a fight in Kibbutz Beeri.

“We hugged and told him not to play the hero”

After the two men woke up to a surprise attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on the morning of Oct. 7, a reserve captain from Lothar, an anti-terrorist unit, “jumped out of bed and within a minute or two he was in uniform,” Omer said.

There, 80 kilometers to the south, the kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip are targeted by Hamas.

“I made him coffee for the road, we hugged. I told him not to make a hero,” he says.

The two lovers decide to send “a heart on WhatsApp every hour to tell each other that everything is okay,” Omer declares in a lost voice.

“I got my last heart at midnight. He did not answer on Sunday,” he says.

Mobilized in turn, but on the northern front, on the border with Lebanon, Omer spent the next days moving mountains to get information, but to no avail.

On the night of October 10-11, officers knocked on the door. “There was no need to speak. It was very clear,” he says.

“We are not always equal in life”

In Beeri, Sagi was killed after he “pulled families out of their shelters” and helped “a unit that was under fire,” a tearful Omer said.

Hit in the chest, “he was already dead” when the unit retrieved his body two hours later.

A devastated Omer is forced to face “bureaucratic” problems.

The officer “didn’t recognize me as Sagi’s partner,” he says. He appealed to the Tzahal for an explanation, and the relevant officer was sanctioned.

In a country where sexual minorities have gained more prominence and rights in recent decades, Sagi and Omar “never knew discrimination.”

“But we are not always equal in life,” he notes bitterly.

Omer Ohana wants to fulfill Sagi’s dream of becoming a father

At the end of October, the Israeli press wrote that in complete mourning, the widower was forced to fight with the administration for the right to financial, psychological and medical support – provided for by law.

In early November, the Knesset proved him right.

But his struggle does not end there. He wants to continue campaigning for a “set of eight laws” that, once passed, will “guarantee absolute equality in Israel” for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) women.

Omer Ohana has received “thousands of messages” of support and says Israelis are “very united” after the Oct. 7 attack that left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians.

Israel has declared war to “destroy” Hamas by continuously bombing Gaza.

According to the Hamas government, these attacks killed at least 13,000 people, most of them civilians.

Omer Ohana is now clinging to Sagi’s “dream” of “becoming a father” through surrogacy, which will be legal in Israel from 2021 for same-sex couples.

Sagi’s sperm was frozen. He is gone, but his beloved will do everything so that he has a child.