‘Always First to Volunteer’: Thousands Mourn Soldier Killed in Samaria Terror Shooting

Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, 22, was laid to rest at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem. “Yesterday, even though you could have gone home, you chose to serve,” his commander said in a eulogy.

By United with Israel Staff

Thousands attended the funeral on Friday morning of 22-year-old IDF Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, who served in the elite Givati infantry brigade and was murdered in a terrorist shooting the previous day near the Jewish community of Kedumim in Samaria.

“My hero, my beloved. Do you know how a mother feels when her treasure was taken? Yesterday I felt like my heart had been taken away,” Shilo’s mother, Orli, said in her eulogy.

“You taught us what love is, but you loved your homeland the most. Nothing will ever be the same, we lost our golden-haired prince with the magical smile and huge heart. Our Shilo, you couldn’t see anyone sad, but you left us sad and heartbroken.

“May the Lord of the universe protect our soldiers and all the members of the Givati Brigade and send us comfort from this unimaginable pain.”

Shilo’s father, David, said, “How do we continue without you, a precious treasure full of joy of life? You were always the first to help and the last to leave….There was no doubt at all where to bury you. You loved Jerusalem. Jerusalem deserves you.”

His sister Esther said, “My little brother, I am not able to eulogize you.  I hear your rolling laughter echoing in my head…You were murdered in the 17th of Tammuz [the beginning of the annual three-week mourning period for the loss of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and other tragedies that occurred on that day in Jewish history]. You were murdered because you are Jewish. I hope you’re making everyone laugh upstairs.”

Lieutenant Colonel Z., commander of the Givati ​​patrol, paid tribute to the deceased. “Shilo, we stand here in pain. Throughout your military service, you participated in operations, you were always the first to volunteer and fight. You were a man of truth. You were a good friend, a conversationalist, attentive and caring. You were always looking to give more. Yesterday, even though you could have gone home, you chose to serve,” he said.

Nathaniel Amos, a lone soldier – one who has no immediate family in the country – said that Amir was “the first to welcome me and hug me.”

Rabbi Eitan Zucker of Kibbutz Merav in northern Israel, where the Amir family lives, praised the terror victim in a broken voice, saying he always saw the good in others and everybody understood that they could ask him for help whenever needed. “You stood up like a lion, walking forward, a fighter.”

Amir was buried at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem next to Chief Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzhak, a soldier from the Egoz commando unit who was killed earlier this week during the counterterrorism operation in Jenin.