The IDF announced on Wednesday that Master Sergeant Gideon Chay DeRowe, 33, from Tel Aviv, was killed in the fighting in northern Gaza. Staff Sergeant Eliyahu Haim Emsallem, 21, from Ra'anana, and Captain Israel Yudkin, 22, from Kfar Chabad, were killed in a separate incident. Since the start of the war, 634 IDF soldiers have been killed.
Yudkin was one of eight brothers, four of whom were serving in the military, either in their compulsory service or in the reserves. News of his death reached his father in New York, where he was mourning his own father. His eldest brother, Levy, the Chabad emissary in Cyprus, also received the tragic news.
"You said you hoped to be released soon," a friend wrote, "now you have fallen for your country. We will remember you always."
In Ra'anana, Where Emsallem's family settled after immigrating from France, former teachers remembered his smile. "He was a beautiful boy who never took the easy road, despite dealing with a new country and language. He graduated with success. He had always wanted to serve in a fighting unit," his teacher said.