Israelis are still processing the horrors committed on Oct. 7, “Black Sabbath,” when more than 1,200 people were slaughtered, some 240 were taken hostage by Hamas, and many others are still missing and unaccounted for, either taken among the hostages or their bodies so destroyed that they have not yet been identified.
Of the people who were massacred, about 250 were soldiers; the other victims were civilians, ranging from mere babies to senior citizens. The hostages too include the entire age range from babies to the elderly.
Hamas asserts that all Israelis of all ages are legitimate targets. Even if those currently doing mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces are somehow considered "legitimate" targets, Hamas also considers those who were discharged long ago and are today civilians doing reserve duty, as well as young children not yet eligible for military service, "legitimate" targets.
And not all Israelis serve in the IDF. Many do national service that can take many forms and has nothing to do with combat.
For Israelis, the IDF is a citizen army with a mission to protect the homeland and its people. With such a large portion of Israel’s 9 million citizens serving or having served in the IDF, the military and the public generally view one another as one extended family, with close familial ties that develop across generations.
This is often most evident at funerals and during eulogies. When five reserve soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 10, masses from across the nation gathered to mourn their losses to their communities.
Four out of the five were in the same unit and were killed by a blast from a booby-trapped tunnel shaft next to a mosque in Beit Hanoun. They were not inside the tunnel when the explosion occurred, and several more soldiers were injured, including two who are in critical condition.
Master Sgt. (res.) Sergey Shmerkin, 32, was a real estate agent from Kiryat Shmona. He is survived by his parents and brother.
Maj. (res.) Moshe Yedidyah Leiter, 39, was an IDF paramedic in training who was also active in providing computer and technology classes to ultra-Orthodox students to prepare them for IDF service as well as for the general workforce. He is survived by his wife and six children. His father, Yechiel Leiter, is a former chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sgt. Maj. (res.) Yossi Hershkovitz, 44, was the principal of the ORT Pelech Boys School in Jerusalem as well as an educator with professional experience in New York. He is survived by his wife and five children.
And Master Sgt. (res.) Matan Meir, 38, is perhaps best known for his work as a producer on the hit television series “Fauda,” which centers on an Israeli counter-terrorism and intelligence unit in the West Bank and Gaza. Eulogizing him on X, formerly Twitter, the “Fauda” team said he had a heart of gold.
That day's fifth fatality was 34-year-old Master Sgt. (res.) Netanel Harush.
Massive crowds came to eulogize these reservists
Separately, the military funeral of 19-year-old Sgt. Roni Eshel was similarly crowded. Eshel was among the missing after the Oct. 7 massacre. It took 35 days for the IDF to confirm her death. Until then, her family held out hope that she was alive in captivity, especially after the rescue of Pvt. Ori Megidish from Gaza. Megidish and Eshel served together in the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border as observers, tasked with gathering intelligence on Hamas’ activities in Gaza.
At the request of the Eshel family, hundreds of people lined the main road by the military cemetery in Kfar Saba with Israeli flags and mourners gathered for several city blocks in each direction.
Eulogizing Eshel were her parents, brother, sister, extended family, many IDF soldiers, including senior officers, and even Knesset member Yifat Shasha-Biton. The feeling of shared grief among the population was palpable amid the hundreds of tearful funeral attendees, including many who may never have met Eshel.
“Roni, look around. The whole country [is here],” said Eshel’s father, Eyal. “Ronki, dearest, I want you to know that for 35 days we fought like lions fight for their cubs. For 35 days we didn’t shut our eyes or stop for a moment. And we didn’t hesitate to speak to everyone who agreed, or even didn’t agree, to listen. … I’m sorry. I failed to protect you and bring you home.”
Among the most shocking revelations by Eshel’s family at the funeral was that she had apparently warned her superiors about an impending Hamas attack. Eshel’s mother tearfully lamented, “[The IDF] didn’t listen to your complaints about the conditions of your service, they didn’t listen to your suggestions, and they especially didn’t listen to your repeated warnings of the mounting dangers beyond the fence. … In the end they just said, ‘It’s known.’”
The observer’s unit at Nahal Oz was composed primarily of female soldiers, most of whom were unarmed non-combatants despite their station being located less than a kilometer from Gaza. When Hamas attacked the base on Oct. 7, only a few combat soldiers were stationed there, and they were easily overrun. The young women hid in a bomb shelter during the attack, and almost all of them were killed or captured. Investigations into why the border and bases were left so exposed will have to wait until after the war is over.
Meanwhile, the IDF has a policy that every soldier killed in action be buried in a coffin, as opposed to the traditional shroud.
“You come from dust, therefore you go back to dust,” Rabbi Yosef Ote from Jerusalem’s Ohel Nechama Synagogue told The Media Line. While Jews are traditionally wrapped only in a cloth shroud and buried directly in the earth, the bodies of those killed in action may not be in a condition to be wrapped in a shroud, and thus the military adopted coffins for all military burials to prevent families from anguished speculation over the state of the body. Ote said holes are drilled into the coffin so that the body still has a connection with the soil.
Since the Gaza ground operation began, more than 50 Israeli soldiers have been killed in action.