Yohai Dukhan, 26: Former yeshiva student, fell in battle

Yohai Dukhan, 26, Second Lieutenant from the 13th Golani Battalion, was killed on October 7 at Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

A former yeshiva student from Kiryat Arba, Dukhan died while fighting in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas terrorists.

Dukhan immigrated to Israel from France at 18 and completed the IDF officer’s course in March 2023.

“I, like many other officers, believe in our soldiers and in the people of Israel. The love for our country and our ability to contribute to it is what drives my family, and particularly my dad,” Dukhan said at a ceremony marking the completion of the course, according to the army’s website. “It’s my heritage, and I am sure that he looks down at me today, and he will be proud of me.”

His father, Alex Jonathan Dukhan, originally from France, was a member of a Kiryat Arba security team. He was killed in combat in November 2002 in Hebron.

The author and biblical history professor Tony Akrich, who knew the family, paid tribute to Dukhan, recounting that he had studied at a yeshiva in Eilat.

Based on journals he wrote as a student, Akrich said Dukhan was in constant search “of the truth.”