Cpt. Eyal Klein, 22: Nahal commander who loved off-road biking

Cpt. Eyal Klein, 22, a team commander in the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Kfar Harif, was killed on October 7 while battling the Hamas invasion of southern Israel.

Eyal was stationed that Saturday morning at an IDF outpost near the southern border of Gaza. Not long before the attack began, he and a group of soldiers set out on a routine patrol along the border, next to a memorial that was just outside Kibbutz Sufa. When the rocket fire began, they sought safety in a small bomb shelter but soon realized that terrorists had stormed the border, according to an IDF eulogy.

They engaged in a gun battle with the group of terrorists, killing five of them, and Eyal reached out to his commanders for backup, not knowing that there was a simultaneous mass invasion along the Gaza border. He was ultimately slain in the firefight at the memorial site alongside Staff Sgt. Daniel Bezgodov.

He was buried on October 11 in Kfar Harif. He is survived by his parents, Hagit and Amir, and his older brothers Guy and Ido.

Born and raised in Kfar Harif, a small moshav not far from Ashdod, Eyal, known as “Luli,” attended schools in the nearby Kibbutz Gat and Kibbutz Kfar Menahem. He loved to ride his bike, play computer games, play soccer and ride his scooter. As a young adult, he was always active, taking part in off-road biking with his family members, hiking around Israel, running long distances and ready to “jump into every spring and stream with his friends and his beloved dog, Harley, and stopping for a camp-stove coffee at any opportunity,” according to a memorial website.

He loved to experiment in the kitchen, always enjoyed his mother’s cooking and even learned how to make his own biltong, a South African beef jerky, that he shared with his friends and comrades, his loved ones said.

He was set on his goal of a combat role in the IDF, even joining a physical readiness program in 12th grade and always staying fit and active. He enlisted in the IDF in August 2019 and joined the Nahal Brigade’s special reconnaissance unit. He later successfully completed a sniper’s course, then a squad commander’s course and later an officer’s course, appointed first as a commander overseeing trainees in the Multidimensional unit and later as a team commander in Nahal.

At his funeral, his older brother, Guy, said that he could not imagine “that there was something in this world that could harm you.”

“You always have your sly little smile implying that everything is fine, and everyone else are just crybabies. You are so optimistic, the goodness of your heart is unmatched,” he added. “From my little baby brother, you grew up to be a big and impressive man, full of smiles, so successful and good that we could only look at you in appreciation. Undoubtedly the successful kid of our family, and now Grandpa can say out loud what we all already know — that you’re his favorite grandchild.”

Guy said there are “so many more things I was waiting to do together with you, and you had a million more plans you wanted to do,” including a big backpacking trip around the world and a family biking vacation to Romania, “where you would put us all to shame. Even just to go out for a beer in Tel Aviv and get you to throw up from alcohol. I promise you that we will achieve all your dreams together, and we’ll take you with you wherever we go.”

Eyal’s father, Amir, said at his funeral that he was “such a talented and smart kid. You have a heart of gold, immense willpower, the body of a swimmer and the face of a model — and yes, that smile, and you knew how to use it to get everything.”

His older brothers, he continued, “said you had ‘sticky hands,’ because you would steal from them clothes, shoes, and essentially anything you wanted. When you were caught — no problem, one smile and it was yours.”

“Eyal, what can a father write to his son who was deemed ‘invincible’ — and still lost in the battle of his life.”

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