Lt. Yuval Yoffe, 21: Tank commander loved to play and watch soccer

Lt. Yuval Yoffe, 21, a platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade, from Tzofit, was killed on October 11, 2023, in fighting near Kibbutz Kissufim.

Yuval was at home on break with the start of the Hamas onslaught on October 7, and was called back to base at the Shizafon training camp in the south. Yuval and his comrades took part in the battle against the Hamas invaders for several days along the border and in hard-hit communities.

He last spoke with his parents on Tuesday evening, and expressed satisfaction that he had been able to be a part of the operations to defend against the Hamas attack. The next morning, four days after the start of the attack, Yuval was killed next to Kibbutz Kissufim.

He was buried in Tzofit on October 13. He is survived by his parents, Yoram and Ossi, and his older siblings Shahar and Omri.

Born and raised in Tzofit, a small community near Kfar Saba, Yuval was the youngest in the family. From a young age he loved music and soccer, and was a devout fan of the Hapoel Kfar Saba and Liverpool soccer teams, according to an IDF eulogy. He also played the sport for many years, until a knee injury at age 17.

Yuval attended the Tavor pre-military academy in the Galilee while he sought to heal from the injury and find the right IDF path forward. In December 2021 he enlisted in the IDF and joined the Armored Brigade, later training as a tank commander, completing officer’s training and eventually being appointed a platoon commander a few months before his death.

His family said Yuval loved his country and exploring its environs, spending time at fresh springs, hiking around with his guitar and his campstove for coffee. Giving back to the state was deeply important to him, and he viewed his military service with great meaning.

“We always said to him, ‘What, you’re going to be an officer now?’ All your friends will be released and send you pictures from Thailand,'” Yuval’s brother, Shahar, told Ynet. “He always had a saying along the way — ‘Those who can, must.’ I really think it’s one of the things that best characterized him.”

Shahar added, “When we talk about Yuval, we talk about his smile, which was impossible not to fall in love with in a second. It’s a smile that really epitomized him. He was always smiling, no matter what.”

Something else that encapsulated Yuval was “the light that he spread everywhere, and the feeling that he gave to everyone he encountered that he was the most important person on the planet at that moment in time,” his brother added.

At the ceremony marking his headstone unveiling, Yuval’s mother, Ossi, said that they had “been privileged to be your parents, a wonderful kid like you, a man, mature and so moral who entered directly into everyone’s hearts.”

“It’s not fair or logical in any way that our time with you was so short and limited. You’ll remain a part of us forever, and we will fulfill your father’s wish that as many people as possible will know who you are and will learn the legacy that you managed to leave behind in your short life,” she continued.

“We will keep up the customs you loved, Dad goes to synagogue on Friday nights, we make kiddush but not as good as you, though we’re trying — we’ll memorialize you in every possible way. You’re in our hearts forever.”

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