Family, friends mourn fallen soldiers

Staff Sergeants Yonatan Hadassi and Yotam Gilboa, both 21, were killed in gunfight against Hizbullah. ‘I can’t believe I’m talking about him in the past tense, Yotam’s mother says. On learning the bitter news, Yonatan’s sister says, ‘I thought it was just a bad dream and I would wake up. But I didn’t'

Aviram Zino|Published: 07.20.06 , 01:13

Staff Sergeant Yonatan Hadassi, 21, from kibbutz Merhavia was supposed to finish the army in two months, but he was killed Wednesday in a gun-battle against Hizbullah fighters in south Lebanon. “He was modest. Even when he was decorated for being an ‘excelling soldier’ he didn’t want a ceremony. He was always looking out for others,” Matan Halman recalled his cousin and good friend.

Growing up on the Merhavia kibbutz, Hadassi learned at “Haamakim Tavor” and loved living in the value. His parents, Yossi and Miri, and two younger sisters Sharon and Eden, were given the bitter news Wednesday.

Sharon, his sister, recalled the moment she learned her brother would never come back. “I was supposed to sail tomorrow with my boyfriend. I was packing and then I saw two soldiers,” she said and her eyes filled with tears. “I immediately understood what happened, but still in the first five minutes I thought it was just a bad dream and I would wake up. But I didn’t.”

Yonatan’s sister remembered how he would come home on break from the army. “He used to have a tradition. When he would come home, he would take two bags of cashew nuts, a glass of coke and we would all sit, and talk for a long time, and then he would go up to his own apartment on the kibbutz and sleep.” She said he was planning to travel in Amsterdam with his girlfriend after his release from the army.

“Yonatan was a great kid. He had an amazing smile and the most wonderful laugh ever,” his relatives said. He liked to play the guitar and even started a band with members of his family.

‘Remember his kind heart’

Staff Sergeant Yotam Gilboa, 21, from kibbutz Maoz Haim, was also killed during army operations in the Avivim area Wednesday. Yotam was a paramedic in the army, and dreamed of studying physics. His mother, Lea Gilboa, said, “Yotam was one of a kind. He was devoted and constant in his will to always give. He knew how to give much better than he knew how to receive. I hope he’s remembered for his kind heart.”

Yotam left behind his parents Leah and Yossi, two brothers, and his girlfriend of three years Natasha.

Yotam’s brother, an Air Force officer, received the sad news a moment before he was sent into Lebanon on an operational mission. His other brother, who had been traveling in Argentina, was on his way home.

“It’s hard for me to believe I am talking about him in the past tense,” his mother said. “In the past two days I didn’t hear much from him and I was worried. I called my other son and he told me not to worry. Then at 5:00 p.m. the officers came to tell me the worst news of all.”

“Yotam,” a neighbor recalled, “had always been his mother’s right hand.” Leah, his mother, works as the kibbutz educational coordinator, and Yotam was always there to help with the trips they organized for the children and any other event, the neighbor said. Yotam will be laid to rest at the Maoz Haim kibbutz cemetery on Friday.