Father of slain soldier, who was cousins with Huwara terror victims, pleads for day of unity

Staff Sgt. (res.) Elisha Yehonatan Lober, one of two IDF soldiers announced killed in Gaza Monday, is the third grandson of Rabbi Shmuel Yaniv to be killed this year, after cousins Hillel and Yigal Yaniv were gunned down in the West Bank city of Huwara in February.

The killings, as the two drove through the city, sparked fiery reprisal attacks by settler extremists, drawing widespread condemnation at home and abroad.

As then, the family again calls for unity in the wake of the latest tragedy to strike.

“We request of the media and of every one of our nation please, one day of unity to uplift his soul, please don’t write of broadcast anything divisive, please, speak good [of others], find the good of the decision makers and of our  amazing people who Yehonatan was proud to fight for,” his father, actor Hagai Luber, writes on Facebook.

He includes a video posted hours earlier of Lober’s 10-month-old son seeing his father on the phone for the first time in weeks.

יהונתן לובר, תושב יצהר, נהרג היום בקרבות הקשים בעזה.
רק שעתיים לפני שנהרג תועד בנו הפעוט מאושר כשהוא צופה בתמונה של אביו pic.twitter.com/6is6S6tVgN

— Carmel Dangor כרמל דנגור (@carmeldangor) December 25, 2023