Father mourns the year’s first IDF casualty

Staff Sgt. Amit Ben Yigal was fatally struck by a rock thrown at IDF forces during an arrest operation in the village of Yabed.

Ben Yigal, 21, who served in a Golani Brigade reconnaissance unit, is the first IDF casualty of 2020.

“I’m shattered. This kid was my whole life,” Ben Yigal’s father, Baruch, said Tuesday in an interview to Israel Radio.

“My son went on a trip to Poland in high school. He called me from there and started to cry. He told me he realized the meaning of ‘Hatikva’ and the Israeli flag, [said], ‘I want to enlist in a combat unit.’ I told him, ‘My dear Amit, understand what that means — you’re my only son.’ He answered, ‘Dad, we won’t have a country otherwise.’

“I went with him to Tel Hashomer and signed permission. I hugged him and told him I was proud of his decision. He was raised in a very Zionist home. He loved the people of Israel.”

“If only no other parent will have to go through this. I don’t know how we go on from here. 

IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman said the fatal attack took place at approximately 4:30 am on Tuesday, after the soldiers had already arrested four suspects and were starting to pull out of the village.

“It’s a hostile village, [located] 10 kilometers [6 miles] west of Jenin. They are experts at throwing rocks at the path that leads to Mevo Dotan,” he said. “Throughout the night, rocks were thrown in the village by groups of 10.”

Zilberman said Ben Yigal “was wearing a helmet, but the rock hit him very hard from an angle.”