14 Days: Fallen soldiers

FALLEN SOLDIERS 

Amid reports of a possible ceasefire-hostage deal, the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip passed the nine-month mark on July 7 with significant progress reported and dozens of terrorists killed. On July 10, the IDF announced that Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Tal Lahat, 21, fell while fighting in central Gaza. On July 7, the military said Maj. Jalaa Ibrahem, 25, was killed by an anti-tank missile in Rafah. On July 4, St.-Sgt. Eyal Mimran, 20, fell in battle in Gaza City. On the same day, Maj. (res.) Itay Galea, 38, was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel, a day after Israel killed a Hezbollah commander in a targeted strike on south Lebanon. On July 3, Cpt. Roy Miller, 21, and Cpt. Elay Elisha Lugasi, 21, fell in combat in northern Gaza. On July 2, the IDF said that Master Sgt. (res.) Nadav Elchanan Knoller and Maj. (res.) Eyal Avnion were killed in combat in Gaza the previous night. On July 1, Sgt. Ori Itzchak Hadad, 21, fell in southern Gaza. On the same day, Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, was killed by a roadside bomb during an IDF operation in Tulkarm. (Pictured: The June 30 funeral in Jerusalem of Sgt.-Maj .(res.) Yakir Shmuel Tatelbaum, 21, killed in Gaza a day before.)

DEIF TARGETED 

An Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on July 13 targeted Muhammad Deif, the elusive commander of Hamas’s military wing, and his deputy, Rafa Salameh, the head of its Khan Yunis Brigade. There was no immediate confirmation that Deif, an architect of the October 7 attack who led the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades for more than two decades and survived at least seven previous assassination attempts, was dead. Hamas claimed that more than 90 people were killed in the strike; the IDF said that most were Hamas terrorists.

TERROR ATTACKS 

Noa and Nir Baranes, both 46, were killed when a Hezbollah rocket hit their car on the Golan Heights on July 9. The couple had three children. On July 12, Master Sgt. (res.) Valeri Chefonov, 33, was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike. On July 3, an off-duty soldier, Sgt. Aleksandr Iakiminskyi, 19, was killed in a stabbing attack at a shopping mall in the northern city of Karmiel. Surveillance camera footage showed Iakiminskyi killing the terrorist before collapsing. 

BE’ERI PROBE 

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a July 11 news conference on the military investigation into the October 7 atrocities at Kibbutz Be’eri that it was clear the army had failed on that day to protect Israeli citizens. “We did not prepare for Hamas’s murderous terror attack,” Hagari said. “The findings of the investigation are clear: The IDF failed in its mission to defend the residents of Kibbutz Be’eri.”

DRAFTING HAREDIM 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Knesset on July 11 that 3,000 haredim would be drafted into the IDF by the summer of 2025. The announcement came after the High Court of Justice ruled on June 25 that the government must start enlisting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the army because there is no longer a legal framework to continue the practice of granting them blanket military exemptions. “In the midst of a severe war, the burden of inequality is more acute than ever and requires the promotion of a sustainable solution to this issue,” the nine justices said in their ruling.

THE DEMOCRATS 

The Labor Party, led by Yair Golan, approved an agreement on July 12 to unite with Meretz under a single party named The Democrats. “The new party will be home for all the forces fighting for democracy and the image of Israel in recent years,” it said. Under the deal, Meretz was promised two seats in the top eight slots..

HIDDEN TZADDIK 

Rav Shalom Aharon Shmueli, who worked as a cobbler on Jerusalem’s Agrippas Street, died on June 29 at Shaare Zedek Medical Center at age 106. Known as a “hidden tzaddik,” prominent rabbis visited him to study Kabbalah. His son, Rabbi Benayahu Shmueli, is rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Hamekubalim in Mahaneh Yehuda.

DR. RUTH 

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the German-born Holocaust survivor and former Hagana sniper who became a world-famous sex therapist and media personality in the United States, died on July 12 in New York City at age 96. She is survived by a son, a daughter, and four grandchildren. “Looking at my four grandchildren – Hitler lost and I won,” she declared at The Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City in 2018. Dr. Ruth received an honorary doctorate in 2021 from Ben-Gurion University, which established the Dr. Ruth Westheimer Scholarship in Psychology in her honor.