(A7) The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit on Sunday morning cleared for publication the names of four soldiers who fell in battle in Gaza.
Captain Ido Baruch, 21, from Tel Mond, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sergeant Amitai Even Shoshan, 20, from Azriel, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sergeant Reef Harush, 20, from Kibbutz Ramat David, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.
Sergeant Ilai Tzair, 20, from Kedar, fell in battle in the southern Gaza Strip.
The incident in which the four fell occurred on Saturday afternoon as the soldiers were on patrol in the north of Khan Yunis.
As the soldiers were operating between buildings, a number of terrorists came out of a shaft that was among the ruins of a building and opened fire at the soldiers from short range. Three of them were killed on impact, and the fourth suffered critical injuries and later succumbed to his wounds.
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Rabbi Barak Okebi, head of the Maoz mechina (pre-military academy) in Lod, told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News that Ilai was “simply Adino Haetzni,” and came from “a special family of righteous converts, he was truly a pure soul, a gentle soul and a bold warrior, beloved by us all, uniquely beloved by every person, a Torah learner, who loved the Torah, who went out to fight with the strength of the Torah and the strength of the great love of Israel that he had.”
Adino Haetzni was the head of the Sanhedrin in ancient Israel, and one of King David’s main warriors.
“He was a great student – just a great student. The nation of Israel truly merited a great warrior, from the ranks of King David, a soldier in the Egoz Unit. He was so happy that he had come there and at every opportunity he had, he would come to the mechina – such as on Fridays before he went home – and he would manage to learn more with his teachers. He went out with the strength of the Torah, to fight for the renewal of Israel – a pure soul.”
The Lev Hasharon Regional Council on Saturday evening announced the death of Even Shoshan, who studied in the Eli Yeshiva in the Binyamin Region, and was a member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement’s Moshav Azriel branch.
The funeral will leave from the Even Shoshan family’s home in Moshav Azriel at 12:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, and proceed to the shared military cemetery.
