From the Liveblog of
Friday, August 23, 2024
‘If you’re reading this then things didn’t go as planned’: Brother of slain IDF soldier reads letter at his funeral
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The brother of IDF Sgt. Ori Ashkenazi Nechemya, killed while fighting in southern Gaza yesterday, reads a chilling letter from his brother at his funeral in Ashkelon.
“Dear family, if you are reading this it is likely that things did not go as planned and I failed. I served out of great love for our strange country, and if I succeeded and sacrificed my life by going – I have no regrets,” the fallen soldier’s brother Shalev read at the funeral, according to a post on social media.
“I succeeded and failed in my mission at the same time.”
הצלחתי ונכשלתי במשימתי בה זמנית.
אמא ואבא אני מודה לכם על הכל. אין לי הרבה בקשות, מלבד זה שתשאירו את החדר שלי כמו שהוא כדי שלא יהפוך לחדר מוזיקה. אוהב אתכם לנצח ואשמור עליכם לנצח, אורי והחלק הכי חשוב שכמעט שכחתי, אשמח שתמשיכו אותי הלאה".יהי זכרו ברוך ????????????
— ארנולד נטייב (@ArnoldNataev) August 23, 2024
Nechemya, 19, served in the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion. According to an initial IDF probe, he was killed by anti-tank missile fire in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
His death brought Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 336.
“He didn’t write these words for nothing,” Shalev says of his brother at the funeral, according to the Ynet news site. “What happened happened – we have to move on no matter how much life knocks us down. We must get up and continue our lives because there is no greater sacredness than life itself.”
The Times of Israel Community.