Every year, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visits the grave of the late Lt. Col. Oded Elias, who was his commander in the Shayetet 13 special forces unit. His nephew Sergeant Roy Elias fell in Gaza three days ago. Roy, a soldier of the 7th Armored Brigade's 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, was killed along with four other soldiers in an anti-tank RPG missile attack in the southern Gaza Strip's Khan Younis.
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During this year's Memorial Day ceremony, Gallant spoke about his uncle Oded Elias, who fell during training in the Sinai Peninsula. "I was 21 when I experienced the loss of a brother in arms, my commander. I have known him since my days as a young lookout. When I joined Shayetet 13, our paths crossed - I was a trainee, and he was the commander," Gallant eulogized.
"Oded was a commander of a kind we will never forget; on one hand, tough and demanding, and on the other hand, he was like a father to us, setting a personal example with a lot of care and concern. I vividly remember the day in 1978 when they gathered us and informed us that Oded had been killed. Life went on, and he remained 22 years old. I remember him with love and longing."
His nephew Roy fell at the age of 21. Meir Tzur, head of the Central Arava Regional Council, said that Roy "was a wonderful young man, value-driven, athletic, very involved in the community, loved the Arava and life in it. I had a personal connection with him, and we talked a lot about his desire to return to the Arava, build a home and family there, and continue the settlement and agricultural values of his dear father, Shlomo Elias, the central figure in the founding core of Tzofar, and a beloved brother."
Tzur presented a photo that Roy sent him from his officer training graduation ceremony, where he raised the flag of the Arava. On Sunday, Roy was laid to rest in the cemetery in Kibbutz Tzofar in the Arava. "Roy, the military officers knocked on our door, a door that from October 7 is just waiting for you to enter with your sweet and modest indifference and say 'Mom, I'm home.' Yesterday, someone else knocked on the door, to tell us that it will never be you," his cousin Noam lamented.