Staff Sgt. Afik Rosenthal, 20: Commando was a peacemaker among friends

Staff Sgt. Afik Rosenthal, 20, a combat medic in the Maglan commando unit, from Kfar Menahem, was killed on October 7, 2023, battling the Hamas invasion of southern Israel.

Afik was home on break that weekend when the Hamas attack began, and he quickly headed toward his base near Ashdod to meet up with other Maglan fighters. He and Maj. Chen Bochris, Cpt. Iftah Yavetz and two other fighters headed toward the hard-hit Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border.

In a battle just outside Nahal Oz, Chen and Iftah were wounded in the fighting and Afik charged ahead to try and save them, but all three were ultimately slain. Afik was found with a tourniquet still in his hand.

Afik was buried in Kfar Menahem on October 9. He is survived by his parents, Tom and Amir, and his siblings Yam and Shahaf.

A close friend of his from the kibbutz, Staff Sgt. Yuval Ben Yakov, was also killed during the Hamas onslaught.

The youngest in his family, Afik was born in Gedera and at age 4 he moved to Kibbutz Kfar Menahem near Kiryat Malachi in the south, according to a kibbutz eulogy.

In December 2021 he enlisted in the IDF and joined the Paratroopers Brigade and was trained as a combat medic. Tapped as a promising fighter, in July 2023 he moved to join the Maglan elite reconnaissance unit in the Commando Brigade. For months before the Hamas attack, his family said Afik told those around him that he believed a major war was coming that would exact a heavy toll on Israel.

“He was always surrounded by crazy amounts of friends, he loved helping others, he was funny and he united the family together,” his older sister, Shahaf, told the Ynet news site. “From a young age he wanted to give back to the country,” she said, noting his military path to Maglan.

“He invested so much to fill in the gaps he had and to become a talented fighter,” she said. “His commander told us that he was overjoyed. Even the morning [of October 7] he had a smile on his face because he was happy that he had the privilege to go out and defend his country.”

Shahaf said the family was told that “he was a hero and through his actions saved many civilians. The only thing that gives us comfort is that he was really happy and he died while he was fulfilling all of his aspirations. We are greatly pained but also full of pride. He was in the place he wanted to be, he wanted to defend the country.”

Afik’s father, Amir, told Army Radio that his son’s “way of life can teach us a lot on the national level and the personal level.”

“Afik from a young age and also as a teen was surrounded by many friends, from around the country, not just from the community we lived in,” he said. “He knew always to connect to all types of people and kids and also to accept those who are different.

“He always radiated joy, he was the glue of his friend group,” he said, noting that Afik helped Yuval integrate into the community and learn the language when he moved to the kibbutz from Russia.

“This is just one example out of a thousand examples of how Afik would act to accept others,” Amir said. “He was always an adviser and a connector — both at home and with his friends. In every argument and every disagreement — he always believed that there wasn’t one side that was wrong and one side that was right, but that the truth was somewhere in the middle.”

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