21 year-old Golani Bridgadesman Amit Ben Ygal (via @AAhronheim on Twitter).
Amit Ben Ygal entered the Palestinian town of Ya’Bad in the West Bank early this morning with several of his comrades in the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion. They made four arrests there, including two individuals involved in a terrorist organization and two others suspected of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. As they withdrew from the town on foot, Amit was scanning rooftops when a large stone was dropped on his head, mortally wounding him. He was airlifted to a hospital in Haifa, where he died soon afterward. Amit was 21-years-old, a native of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, the only child of his parents, Baruch and Nava
The other members of Amit’s squad did not return fire at the scene, as the assailant was not sighted. Instead, IDF units returned to Ya’Bad, just southwest of the West Bank city of Jenin, and arrested several male and female suspects in a sweep. Defense Minister Naftali Bennett released a statement shortly afterwards, saying, "Staff Sergeant Amit Ben Yigal fell tonight while defending Israel's security. The IDF and the security forces will find the lowly terrorists responsible for this, and we will settle accounts with them.” President Rivlin and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu also publicly expressed their condolences and assured Amit’s family that the assailant would be brought to justice.
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Amit volunteered for the prestigious “Sayeret Golani”, the Golani Brigade, after witnessing the atrocities of the Holocaust in Nazi death camps during a trip to Poland. His father Baruch. in an interview today, recounted the resolution and courage of his son to fight for the “only country” of the Jewish people. “I said to him, Amit you are my only son, you have to understand what this means. He responded that we have no other country and I went with him to Tel Hashomer to sign – and I told him how proud I was of him. I signed the form...I signed the form for my only son. He wanted Sayeret Golan.”
Amit was a gifted writer who captured the experience and character of defending the Israel’s northern Golani frontier in his prose. “To be Golanchik [a member of the Golani Brigade] is to see the landscape from the bus window, and to know that you marched there too... It’s to curse the moment you are living in, and in the same breath remember why you are here. To be a Golanchik is to sit on gear while looking at each other's eyes and just laugh because you are both going through the same thing. It's a deep friendship... to look at the soldiers with the red berets when you have red eyes. To be Golanichik is not to look back, because you always have a whole country behind you.”
Hundreds of mourners attended Amit’s funeral today to pay their respects. Parents Baruch and Nava, as well as girlfriend Osher, fought to keep their composure as they spoke. “You were supposed to bury me Amit. I wasn’t supposed to bury you”, said Baruch. “My father lies twenty meters from here, so does my mother…You called me Akhbar Abba [Great Father], but now I’m nothing. I’m broken. I hope I was a good father. God give me the strength to wake up in the morning”.
