The IDF confirmed to the publication on Monday morning that commando fighters Maj. Issachar Natan and Staff Sergeant Itai Shoham fell in battle in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the past, Nathan, 28, from Kiryat Malachi, was filmed for an IDF video in which he talked about his experiences as a company commander in the 202nd Paratroopers Battalion. Amazingly, Nathan spoke in the video about the possibility of a massacre near Gaza.
"If I'm not there, terrorists will come in and carry out a massacre."
"In one of the last rounds the brigade took up in the Gaza Division, we were at the Erez outpost. We lay there on the batteries as soon as the round started and mortars were fired. 100 meters behind me, when I look back, I see the settlement of Netiv Ha'ahara. In the end, my feeling is that if I'm not lying there and I'm there, the residents who are 150-100 meters behind us will kidnap this thing and [terrorists] will go inside and eventually massacre them."
Major Issachar Nathan, photo: IDF Spokesperson
The Kiryat Malachi municipality noted that Nathan "commanded, among other things, the force that located the terrorists in the attack in Elad about a year and a half ago. On the eve of Simchat Torah last year, he participated in laps until the wee hours of the night, and in the morning, when he heard about the break-in, he drove quickly to the envelope and bravely saved many families."
In the video that appears at the beginning of the article, Nathan stated: "I chose to be a fighter because this thing is really challenging and it is a mission for me and a desire to contribute. My father fought in the Yom Kippur War. To be a fighter in the Paratroopers Brigade is to be in one big family."
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