Four brothers and a longing

"To this day, when I see my triplets — Guy, Eliran, and Mor — I feel a pinch in my heart that my Roiki is not there." This is what Tami Farjon said, whose son Roi fell in a terror attack exactly 20 years ago and was the first casualty of the Netzah Yehuda battalion from the Haredi Nahal track.

The last picture of them as quadruplets, which appeared on the cover of Yedioth Ahronoth after Roi's death, was taken when they were in IDF uniforms. "It was a Saturday when we all came home for the weekend," they said. "It was great fun to be together at home, and on Saturday night we said: 'Let's take a picture in uniform.' We put on our uniforms and berets — Roi with the green beret of the Nahal — and took the photo."

Roi Farjon enlisted in Netzah Yehuda in May 2005, after finishing a preparatory program in Beit El. On August 19, 2006, while serving as a squad commander, Roi was leading fighters at the Beka'ot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. A few minutes before noon, a terrorist arrived at the checkpoint, pulled out a pistol, and fired. Roi was struck in the chest and killed.

His battalion commander, Lt. Col. Itzik Guy, eulogized him: "Roi embodied qualities we would like to see in every fighter and commander — on one hand, he treated his soldiers with great love and dedication, and on the other, he was a professional soldier who was not willing to compromise."

The terrorist was eliminated on the spot. The taxi driver who drove him and another accomplice were sentenced to life imprisonment. In October 2025, they were released as part of a deal to return hostages from Gaza. "We were happy that the hostages are returning home, even though those involved in my brother's murder were released," said Eliran, "but the current Netzah Yehuda battalion commander promised us: 'We do not forget Roi; we will settle the score with them.'"

The mother and brothers emphasized that Netzah Yehuda became a family. To this day, they wrap them in care and attend Roi's memorial service at the military section of the cemetery in Yehud every year.

For Tami Farjon, time stood still that day. 20 years later, she still calls her son "Roiki," just as she did then. "I carried him in my womb together with his sister and two brothers. He came out last of the quadruplets, but with the biggest weight," she recalled with a smile.

She remembers the knock on the door — the moment she received the tragic news — in great detail: "I will never forget that knock. 20 years have passed, and it still echoes in my head. I opened the door, people in uniform were standing there and asked: 'Are you Roi's mother?' I answered 'Yes,' and they told me: 'Roi was killed.' I felt a shot in my heart. Time does not heal the wounds. The longing only intensifies; it is with me every single moment of the day."

Tami is 71; her children are 41. When they were two, their father, Emmanuel, was killed in a work accident. "Since then, Mom raised us alone," they say. "We grew up as brothers who are also friends. We studied together, did homework together, played together, and I took care of them when we returned home and Mom was still at work," recalls Eliran, who was born first, a minute and a half before Mor.

Tami notes that "as quadruplets, they were not identical. Each had his own character, even though they were a cohesive group, not just as brothers, but as friends."

The hardest moment every year comes on their birthday. "For years it was hard for me to wish the three children a happy birthday because I am missing one," says Tami. "It is not easy to celebrate for three when Roiki is no longer with us." Eliran added: "Bereaved families have the memorial service on the day of the fall and Memorial Day. For us, every birthday became a memorial day for Roi. We all grew up and moved on, but he remained young forever, always 21. Only in recent years has Mom managed to call us despite all the difficulty and pain and say 'happy birthday.'"

Eliran and Guy are fathers of four children each; Mor is a mother to a girl. "The hardest thing is that we all developed, got married, and had children, and for Roi, this will never happen," says Eliran. And his sister, Mor, even after 20 years, still finds it difficult to talk about the brother who was flesh of her flesh, and is no more.