A symbol of ‘Don’t quit’: The IDF soldier who died 417 days after being shot 13 times on Oct. 7
His spirit never waned, say parents of Yona Betzalel Brief, 23, an Israeli-US citizen from Modiin who has come to emblemize sacrifice made by hundreds of fallen Israeli troops
For more than 400 days after he was critically wounded during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, Sgt. First Class Yona Betzalel Brief, 23, tried to recover. But after losing both legs and enduring medically induced comas, he died in late November.
The dual Israeli-American citizen from Modiin, a combat medic with the Duvdevan commando unit, has come to symbolize the sacrifice by hundreds of fallen soldiers in what many in Israel see as a war for the country’s survival.
“He became a symbol of ‘Don’t quit,'” said his mother, Hazel. His father, David, compared him to the oil that lit the menorah in the Hanukkah story, miraculously burning longer than expected, according to Jewish tradition.
The Israel Defense Forces has published the names of 821 soldiers, officers and reservists — several dozen of them local security officers — killed during the ongoing war with terrorists in both Gaza and Lebanon since October 7, more than 306 of them on the border with the Strip during the terror onslaught. Thousands of others have been wounded, many of them seriously.
Serving in Israel’s military is compulsory for most Jews. Soldiers’ service is sacred, and Israelis are deeply moved by their sacrifice. Public opinion in previous wars has often been swayed by high soldier casualties.
Months before Brief was called into action on October 7 last year, he had been seriously wounded, also in his legs, by a pipe bomb during a commando raid while serving in the West Bank.
The weekend of October 7 was his first on duty after his recovery.
As 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, Brief and his seven-soldier commando unit raced to join the IDF’s house-by-house war in the towns and military bases along the border.
His father said Brief’s unit was ordered to clear Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Hamas terrorists ambushed them, killing two soldiers.
When Brief rushed to help one of them, he was shot 13 times.
Suddenly, he was forced to use his training as a medic to save himself.
His father said he cinched tourniquets around his mutilated legs and dragged himself and a fellow soldier into a nearby bullet-ravaged home.
There, the family of Hadas Eilon-Carmi, whose brother Tal Eilon was killed fighting Hamas terrorists at Kfar Aza that day, hid in a reinforced room and later described Brief as the soldier “full of blood.”
Brief was evacuated to a hospital hours later. The other soldier, his commanding officer, died at the scene.
The hospital stay was grueling, too. Brief was the most critically wounded patient from the October 7 attack to be treated at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv, the country’s largest hospital.
After his legs were amputated, he teetered between life and death.
He had more than 20 surgeries. His doctors told Israeli media he received more than 200 units of blood. The hospital brought specialists and surgeons from around the world in a bid to save him.
Eilon-Carmi’s family became close with his family, visiting Brief in the hospital and praying for his recovery.
“Yona represents everything I want an Israeli to be,” she said.
Brief’s determination to live became a source of inspiration for the doctors and medical staff, who had been overwhelmed by work and heartbreak in the early days of the war, said Steve Walz, the international spokesperson for Sheba Medical Center.
Though there were periods when Brief was in a medically induced coma, he was often awake and lucid, even lively.
He was grateful for what remained, his mother said.
He worked out in his hospital bed, raising a barbell above his head. He sang and danced with visitors. Once, he even left the hospital to spend the night in his family home, but his medical issues brought him back.
Brief’s parents said there were sparks of joy in the nearly 14 months after he was wounded. Chefs cooked him special meals like sushi. Politicians and influencers visited, and Israel’s top musicians played by his bedside. He turned 23.
But while his parents said his spirit never waned, his liver finally failed after months of heavy medication.
Hundreds attended his funeral, and tributes poured in from all walks of Israeli life.
“With Yona, every day he had to fight for this victory and that’s why his heroism is extraordinary,” said Chili Tropper, an opposition lawmaker who became close with Brief and his family. “For him, during 417 days, every single day was a war.”
