In Sri Lanka, Wounded IDF Soldier Makes Uncanny Connection with Fallen Commander

The injured soldier saw that a Megillah scroll in Sri Lanka was dedicated to a commander who had fallen in the same battle in which he was wounded.

By Shula Rosen

While vacationing in Sri Lanka, a Golani soldier who was injured in the current war in Gaza, stumbled upon a moving tribute to a commander who had been killed in battle.

The Golani Brigade soldier was celebrating Purim in Sri Lanka. During the reading of the megillah, the traditional recitation of the Book of Esther, he noticed that the megillah scroll was dedicated to the memory of three fallen IDF soldiers–including Major Moshe Avram Bar-On, who fell in the same battle in which the Golani soldier had been injured.

“This was the first time the Megillah was opened and read, providing a powerful sense of closure for Purim,” he said. “The connection between the holiday, the Megillah reading, and the remembrance of fallen soldiers made the moment especially emotional and moving.”

Bar-On and nine other soldiers were killed battling terrorists in the Shejaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. He emigrated from Paris to Israel at the age of seven and served as a commander in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade.

The day before he was killed, Bar-On sent a message to his sister Rivka: “I’m heading to sleep, exhausted, for a few hours, but today I’m certain that the world is becoming a little better. What we’re doing—there are no words to fully express how meaningful it is.”

Bar-On fell in a December 2023 battle that saw the most considerable IDF losses at that point in the war, leaving 10 dead and six wounded. Four men who entered a structure in the Shejaiya neighborhood to clear it were ambushed by Hamas fighters, who shot at them from elevated positions and detonated an improvised explosive device (IED).

While the small unit was killed in the incident, their commanders were unaware of the situation and quickly rushed to try to save them.

The rescue force was divided into three groups that would approach the location from different directions. Each team came under heavy fire and suffered casualties—two soldiers were killed in two of the units, and one soldier fell in the third.

The battle lasted over two hours, with crucial support from an armored unit of the 188th Brigade, whose firepower enabled the ground troops to reach and recover the bodies of all their fallen comrades.

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