Gadi Eisenkot is many things: a decorated career soldier, a well-respected former IDF chief of staff, an integral member of the emergency government as part of Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party, and an observer in the war cabinet that is guiding the war against Hamas, now in its third month.
He is also a husband and a father. And as of Thursday, he’s a father and an uncle in mourning.
That evening, the IDF announced the death of his son, Master Sgt. (res.) Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, of the 551st Brigade’s 699th Battalion, during combat with Hamas in northern Gaza. Eisenkot was severely wounded when a bomb exploded in a tunnel shaft in the Jabalya camp.
His death, and the death of another soldier, Sgt. Maj. (res.) Jonathan David Deitch, 34, of the 55th Brigade’s 6623rd Reconnaissance Battalion, raised the death tally then among IDF forces since the ground invasion to 89 (now 94 at press time, the minister’s nephew being among the additional five).
Gadi Eisenkot's nephew killed days after his son
On Saturday evening, Eisenkot’s nephew, his sister’s son, Sgt. Maor Cohen Eisenkot, 19, was also named as having fallen in battle in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, the elder Eisenkot received the news of his son’s death while touring the IDF’s Southern Command with Gantz.
Gantz issued a heartfelt statement, saying, “Gadi, we’ve known each other for years. I know how strong you are and how united your family is. You’ve always protected our home as well as your personal home.”
The younger Eisenkot’s death – although no more or less tragic or heart-wrenching than that of any of the other IDF soldiers who have fallen on October 7 or in the battles since – reflects an intrinsically Israeli ethos to the trauma in which the country is currently enmired.
The IDF is a peoples’ army, made up of all strata and segments of society. Nobody is exempt from the obligations of living in a country that faces lethal threats on its borders or immune to the sometimes dreadful consequences.
Earlier in the war, President Isaac Herzog’s wife, Michal, disclosed that one of their three sons was in active service in Gaza fighting Hamas. It doesn’t matter if you’re an electrician, a lawyer, a bus driver, or the president of the country – when your children are called up and put on their uniform, their last name and personal history don’t matter. They are in the service of the army, the people, and the country.
Eisenkot was no doubt aware of the risks facing his son.
Former IDF intelligence chief Tamir Hayman was quoted by N12 as recalling a conversation with Eisenkot after the National Unity Party joined the war coalition. “At the start of the war, Gadi told me he intended to manage the war as though his son was at the front and his daughter was kidnapped in Gaza. And then he noted in his direct, solemn style: ‘My daughter isn’t kidnapped, but my son is at the front,’” said Hayman.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid posted and referred to a photo of a proud elder Eisenkot and his son embracing while both were in uniform a few years ago.
“This photo. This hug. A father and his son. Both in uniform. Both soldiers in this country. They both respond to the call and show up when they’re needed, doing whatever they need to do. The fate of an entire nation in one hug,” Lapid wrote.
In perhaps the most telling remark showing that nobody in Israel is immune to the grief of losing a loved one in the war against Hamas, Minister Chili Tropper, a member of the same party as Eisenkot, noted how the cabinet had decided to enter Gaza weeks ago, knowing that many of its members could be directly affected.
“Gadi was patrolling the forces near Gaza precisely during the time that his son fought and was killed,” he said. “Only in small and Zionist Israel is this possible: a father who makes decisions that mean risking his son, and a son who leaves everything and goes out to fight for his country. Is there any bigger sacrifice?”
The answer, as we have been painfully reminded time and time again, is no.
May the Eisenkot family, and all Israeli families who have experienced loss in recent weeks and anytime before, find comfort at this most difficult time.