Captain Daniel Mimon Toaff, 23, a Givati Brigade officer from the Shaked Battalion, was among the four IDF soldiers killed in an explosion in a building in Rafah on Tuesday.
In the same incident where Toaff was killed, two other fighters from the battalion, Staff Sergeant Amit Bakri and Staff Sergeant Dotan Shimon, as well as paramedic Staff Sergeant Agam Naim from Battalion 52, also lost their lives.
"Daniel was in Gaza from the first day of the war. Initially, he commanded his soldiers as a platoon commander and later replaced his friend, Captain Yaron Eliezer Tzitzis, who was the deputy commander of the operational platoon of the Shaked Battalion and fell in combat," his father, Shlomo, said in an interview with Army Radio. "Daniel replaced him, and now he has also fallen. He fought heroically throughout this year and never complained."
Toaff recounted the mission his son and his comrades faced in Gaza.
For the love of Israel
"Daniel always conveyed that everything was fine, even though I know it wasn't," he said. "He simply didn’t want to worry us. He said they were doing everything needed to win and bring the hostages home. That was their mission, and they fought for it without disputes and without cynicism. These kids were pure, and they did and continue to do it only for the people of Israel."
Shlomo is a senior executive and head of the Air Defense Systems Division at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. For the past six years, he has been the head of the Short-Range Air Defense Management ("Iron Dome"). "I am deeply involved in everything happening in the war, and I was always very proud of Daniel and what he was doing. I am still proud of him," said Toaff's father.
Captain Toaff, from Morashat, was an athlete and competitive mountain bike rider. He studied at a high school yeshiva in Sde Yaakov and, before joining the army, spent two years at the Bnei David preparatory program in the settlement of Eli.
"Daniel was supposed to start a squad commanders course in three months. We hoped we would finally have some quiet. So now we have quiet," his father added.
Daniel is survived by his parents, three brothers, and a sister. One of his brothers received the news of his death while on reserve duty in Metula. His funeral will take place Wednesday evening at the military section of Mount Herzl.