An only child, Ben-Yigal was exempt from serving in a combat unit but insisting on fighting for his country.
Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Yigal, a 21-year-old IDF soldier, was murdered Tuesday morning by a rock-throwing Palestinian while operating in Judea and Samaria in a search for terrorists.
Ben-Yigal represented the best that Israel has to offer. His father’s only child (his mother has daughters from a second marriage), he was exempt from serving in combat but insisting on fighting for his country, and his father signed a document allowing him to do so.
“How heroic of the father, how heroic of the son,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said at the funeral.