Friends, family mourn soldiers who fell in Gaza

St.- Sgt. Guy Levy, St.-Sgt. Guy Boyland, St.-Sgt. Avraham Grintzvaig, St.-Sgt Gal Bason, Sgt. First Class (Res.) Barak Refael Degorker, Capt. Liad Lavi, were buried Sunday.

By JEREMY SHARON, BEN HARTMAN
Chief Sgt. Barak Refael Degorker, the 43rd soldier to die in Operation Protective Edge. (photo credit: IDF)
Chief Sgt. Barak Refael Degorker, the 43rd soldier to die in Operation Protective Edge.
(photo credit: IDF)
St.- Sgt. Guy Levy, 21, a combat soldier in the Armored Corp from Kfar Vradim in the north, who was killed in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, was laid to rest on Sunday in a military cemetery in his hometown.
His sister said it was “hard to wake up to a world in which you are not here. It’s hard to describe the pain. You are everyone’s hero and my personal hero. I love you my brother, guard us from above.”
St.-Sgt. Guy Boyland, 21, a native of New Zealand who lived on Kibbutz Ginossar in the Galilee, was killed Friday night while on operations with his Combat Engineering unit in the southern Gaza Strip. He was buried in the kibbutz’s military cemetery on Sunday.
“It’s shocking, Guy was very gentle and sweet,” a neighbor of the family said.
St.-Sgt. Avraham Grintzvaig, 21, from Petah Tikva was killed on Saturday during combat in the northern Gaza strip. He was described by friends as being the most motivated soldier in his unit.
Grintzvaig was buried in the Petah Tikva military cemetery on Sunday.
St.-Sgt Gal Bason, a 20-yearold combat soldier in the Combat Engineers Corps from Holon, was killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip early on Saturday. Bason was buried on Sunday afternoon in the Holon military cemetery, and is survived by his parents and two siblings.
“We always joked about who was more perfect,” his brother said at the funeral.
“Today I can say without doubt it was you. You will always be more beautiful than me, wiser than me, funnier than me and will remain forever 20 years old.”
Sgt. First Class (Res.) Barak Refael Degorker, 27, of Gan Yavne was the 43rd soldier to die in Operation Protective Edge when he was hit by a mortar during the humanitarian cease-fire Saturday night.
Degorker was in a reserve unit of the Engineers Corps and was stationed close to the Strip with other units when he was injured by the mortar fire. He was buried on Sunday night in the military cemetery in Gan Yavne.
One of his brothers said that he would volunteer in all situations and that he would do whatever was required of him.
Capt. Liad Lavi, 22, who was wounded in fighting in the Strip with his Paratroopers unit on Thursday night, died of his wounds in Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. He was buried on Sunday.
His brother described him as an ambitious person who never gave up. “He had goals and he always believed and always achieved them. He’s a hero of Israel.”