Just a few hours after speaking with his family on the phone and asking them to be strong, First Sergeant Yonathan Einhorn was killed in fierce battle against Hizbullah in south Lebanon
Just Monday night, First Sergeant Yonatan Einhorn spoke with his mother on the phone and asked his family to be strong. Just a few hours after their phone conversation, Yonathan was killed in a fierce battle against Hizbullah in the area of Aita al-Shaab in south Lebanon.
Yonatan’s parents, Revital and David, from Moshav Gimzo near Lod, were very involved with all aspects of their first-born son’s military service. Just a month ago he celebrated his 22nd birthday.
Yonatan studied at a Yeshiva high school, following which he attended a pre-army preparatory program. He joined the IDF paratroopers reconnaissance company together with his friends, then moved to the 101st Battalion.
Yonatan took part in the fierce battle a week ago in Bint Jbeil, where eight troops were killed. His good friend Gideon Goldenberg, also from Gimzo, was seriously wounded in the battle and is still hospitalized at the Rambam Hospital.
'Life and death battle'
Yonatan, however, managed to evade injury when his cell phone miraculously acted as a shield blocking shrapnel from wounding his person.
On Sunday Yonatan and his friends had a few days break, and they went to Haifa where he met his parents, who brought him new glasses to replace the ones that broke during combat.
Yonatan’s parents said he told them of the fierce fighting in Lebanon. “This is a battle of life and death,” he told his parents. “It is either us or them.”
“He was the salt of the earth,” Yonatan’s uncle Avraham said. “He took everything in stride; he was crazy about the army and the paratroopers in particular. Whenever he had the time he would travel throughout the country with his friends.”
David Einhorn, who was called up for reserve duty, was the first to receive word of his son’s death when Yonatan’s friend from the army phoned him to express his condolences; the stunned father immediately called his wife at her workplace and asked that she rush home.
Yonatan is survived by his parents and four siblings.
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