Sergeant, Achiya Daskal z"l, a 51-year-old soldier in the 19st Battalion of the Golani Brigade, from Haifa, was one of those killed tonight in battle in the Sajaiya neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip. Daskal was educated as a teenager at the Bnei Akiva Yavne Ramat Alon Yeshiva in Haifa and was a third grader at the Seder Yeshiva in Kiryat Shmona.
Her brother is survived by his parents and eight siblings. He is the second student of the Kiryat Shmona Yeshiva to fall in battle in northern Gaza. A month ago, Staff Sergeant Eitan Dishon also fell in battle.
Neighbors of soldier Achiya Daxel from Haifa: "We are all in tears - how did we lose her brother that everyone loved?" // Credit: Michelle Dot Com
Shlomit Daskal, her late brother's mother, said this morning: "Her brother was never a big talker, he was gentle, introverted, but with a huge and good heart. Anyone who asked him for something, he always gladly did. Everyone loved him very much. Her brother was a man of letters, read a lot of philosophy and depth books, and devoted time to studying Torah."
"Always be goal-focused"
"As a mother, I'm a very worried mother and I asked my husband not to tell me where he was. They didn't tell me he was in Gaza, but I understood he was in a place where he couldn't talk because I texted him and it stayed one V. My husband was in touch with him, they had a very warm and close relationship and they would talk every day. He was an idealist in every aspect of his life, wrote himself sentences of Maimonides and spoke about wanting to do the maximum."
"Her brother was always focused on a goal and really wanted to go to Golani because he wanted to go to the Egoz cruiser. I'm crushed, I can't cope with the knowledge and it's still incomprehensible that I'm speaking in the past tense and walking around the house, remembering where he sat and what he liked to eat. I am comforted that he was glad that he wanted to enter Gaza, he saw it as an ideal and a contribution to the State of Israel."
Her brother's neighbors, Yossi Barsheshet and Meir Azoulay, told him that on October 7 he put on a uniform and went south to fight Hamas terrorists.
"He won't be coming back"
"Her brother was a boy who wanted to lead, wanted to help and assist. It is difficult to speak of him in the past tense. The boy was of high standing, noble and humble. We are all bitter in tears - how did we lose her brother whom everyone loved? It is inconceivable that her brother will never return, he was a role model for everyone here in the neighborhood."
Documentation from the battles in the Kasbah in Sejaiya, where nine Golani fighters fell, including her late brother Daskal, photo: IDF Spokesperson
Meir added in tears: "Her brother would always come to help in the synagogue. He would pitch in to any task, and come to complete a minyan when we were missing. His death is a great loss for all of us."
The head of the Kiryat Shmona Yeshiva, Rabbi Ariel Barkai, eulogized: "Her brother was on the one hand a quiet and gentle young man, and on the other hand he knew what he wanted and where he was headed. When all his friends enlisted in the Nahal, it was important for her brother to enlist in Golani and he separated from the guys and enlisted separately. Although he was not with his friends during his military service, they say that it was important for him to make sure to be part of the spiritual and religious place. In the army, he managed to integrate and was one of the most significant members of the unit. Her brother always had a radiant and pleasant face and had inner strength."
Rabbi Yishai Levinger, her late brother's rabbi at the Seder Yeshiva, added: "The phrase most identified with him is 'say a little and do a lot.' He always had a half-smile. Shortly before the fighting, we were in touch and he said he would return to the yeshiva when possible, unfortunately he would no longer return."
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