‘Pain that tears the soul apart’: Hundreds attend funeral of IDF commander killed in Lebanon

Hundreds of people attend the funeral of Maj. (res.) Harel Birenstock, 34, an IDF company commander killed yesterday in an IED explosion in southern Lebanon.

A second soldier was killed in the blast, and four were seriously injured.

“My firstborn son. My beautiful boy. I can’t believe this is what happened to us. I never will,” Birenstock’s mother Yonat says. “You made me a mother, and then a grandmother. You built the sweetest family imaginable.”

She says that unlike past combat missions, she had not been overly worried for his safety now. “This time I stopped myself from worrying, and they came without my even noticing,” she says. “Now we’re learning what pain really is… God in Heaven, hold our hand and teach us how to live with this pain that tears the soul apart.”

Father Shmuel says Harel was “full of joy, full of mischief, but also deeply serious… I want to thank you for the years I was blessed to have you. You made us happier than we could ever have imagined as parents. This is a tremendous test of faith for me. I feel as though there’s a knife piercing my heart.

“The last time I led you somewhere, it was to your wedding canopy. Now look where we’re leading you.”

His wife Elia says: “My Harel, when you left on Simchat Torah [on October 7, 2023], after packing just a few pairs of underwear, you hugged me and said, ‘Be strong.’ Since then, I’ve tried to take on that role — to be strong for the children, to be the commander’s wife. But this time, I can’t be strong. I have no strength left.”