Parents of lone soldiers who fought in Gaza flown to Israel

The parents of 77 lone soldiers who fought in Operation Protective Edge will land in Israel over the next few days to spend the upcoming Rosh Hashanah holiday with their children, courtesy of AWIS (the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers), El Al and the Israel Hotel Association (IHA).

Some 125 people will arrive on El Al flights departing from 10 destinations —  Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Brussels and Amsterdam — and will be hosted free of charge, along with their soldier children, at hotels around the country for five days.

“We are proud to be part of this special project to reunite the parents and their children — lone soldiers who chose to leave their families, in order to be inducted to the IDF and took part in the fighting during Operation Protective Edge,” David Maimon, the CEO of El Al, said in a statement.

Avigdor Kahalani, the head of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel’s Soldiers, which co-organized the project, said: “The lone soldiers are not alone.”

Lone soldiers were in the spotlight during Operation Protective Edge, after three of their ranks — Staff Sergeant Max Steinberg of California, Staff Sergeant Nissim Sean Carmeli of Texas, and Staff Sergeant Jordan Bensemhoun of Lyon — were killed in action.

The funerals of Carmeli and Steinberg drew massive crowds, in the tens of thousands, who came to pay their last respects to the volunteers.

More than 2,000 Lone Soldiers serve in the IDF, according to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Of them, many serve in the “Machal” group of overseas volunteers, who complete an abbreviated service typically of 18 months, as opposed to Israeli-born conscripts who serve for three years.

Cathryn J. Prince contributed to this report.