Dozens of friends and family members gathered in the Cohen's house on Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov with the news of Moran Cohen's death. Moran, 21, was killed Tuesday in the battle that took place in Bint Jbeil.
The family's last meeting with Moran was two weeks ago. One of his aunts painfully told about a one of a kind boy: "He was an angel. My youngest daughter, Batsheva, wrote him a special letter because he was fighting in Lebanon, asking him to take care of himself. She affixed a 'hamsa' to the top of the page and now she asked 'why didn't the hamsa protect him?'"
His classmates from Beit Yareach High School described him as "the little prince." Moran is described as a shy, modest kid who always smiled.
All of his brothers served in elite commando units in the IDF. Moran was the baby of the family. Relatives said that the parents suffered many years of worrying from the dangerous IDF service of their sons.
A close friend of Moran's mother told that since the beginning of the war Moran's mother, Nitza, felt as if something terrible was about to happen. "Each month she never stopped crying. She was stressed out all these years because of her older sons. When one was released, the next one enlisted."
His two brothers served in the Golani commandos, one in the general staff commando unit, and Moran in the paratroopers. "She accompanied them all these years with immense worry. Moran was in Lebanon since the beginning of the fighting, and ever since you could see how tense she was," said the friend.
Moran enlisted to the army after he was a youth councilor in a year of service. He leaves behind his parents and four older brothers.
"Oren didn't have to be there"
In fire exchanges in Bint Jbeil, Staff Sgt. Oren Lifshitz, 21, from Gazit, was also killed, while serving on a rescue team. His mother has been a culture coordinator on the kibbutz for many years and he is the second of four sons. His parents came to the kibbutz from Argentina. "He was a talented and modest child, who was the favorite of all his friends and family," told one of the friends.
A kibbutz member added: "Oren was supposed to be released in November. What characterized him was his unendingly large soul. He used to volunteer, donate a lot, loved and popular. He didn't have to be where he was (Lebanon). They were pressuring him to be an instructor on the base but he preferred being with his friends that he had been with the whole time in the special unit."
"His brother served three years in the territories. Their mother has had constant anxiety for the past six years. Oren planned on working a year in the kibbutz when he was released and then to go traveling," she added.