Dor Zimel and Addir Mesika never met — though they were both in their 20s and both grew up in Even Yehuda, in the center of Israel.

Maj. (res.) Dor Zimel, 27, a deputy company commander in the Etzioni Brigade who was killed in a Hezbollah attack in the north last week, was engaged to be married — having proposed to his fiancée with a ring gifted to him by the father of Addir Mesika, 23, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists at the Supernova music festival on October 7.

Stationed on the northern border since war erupted Gaza that day, Zimel received last minute notice of a day off from the army on October 24, and rushed to plan a fairytale proposal to his girlfriend, Shir. He was connected with Mesika for the engagement ring, friends helped him set up a sunset proposal location, and contacts in the army even pitched in with a drone to capture the surprise.

As Zimel wrote in an excited post on Facebook, after the proposal him and Shir “drank a toast to Addir’s memory at the Mesika family home” in Even Yehuda.

“We won, we won, once again we won,” he wrote. “Especially in these dark days – events like this one underscore the reason that it won – with Israel alive and united than ever before.”

He signed the post, “Going back up north, see you at the wedding.”

But the June wedding was not to be.

Zimel was critically wounded in a Hezbollah drone and missile attack on the northern border community of Arab al-Aramshe last week, and succumbed to his wounds on Sunday. Another 13 soldiers and four civilians were also wounded in the attack.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a building being used by the Israeli military with guided missiles and explosive-laden drones.

Alon Mesika has since continued donating diamond rings for soldiers who are getting engaged during this period, telling Tablet that he’s passed 80 rings and counting.

Addir, along with his two best friends, was killed at the Supernova rave on October 7 trying to save his girlfriend Yuli, who ultimately survived. The three best friends were memorialized in November at the Netanya surf club where they often scaled the waves, and Mesika is continuing the line of jewelry that his son was designing when he was killed.

“Hamas and the terrorists wanted to take our life, taking an Israeli life, a Jewish life, is preventing the building of a house in Israel,” Mesika told Tablet Magazine “and what I’m doing, is building houses in Israel. I’m doing the opposite.”

War erupted in Gaza after October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 250 hostages, mostly civilians, under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 360 people were slaughtered at the Supernova festival, many amid acts of brutality by the terrorists.