Sergeant Afik Rosenthal, z"l, from Kfar Menachem, served in the Maglan commando unit.
Afik was killed in an encounter with Hamas terrorists in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz. His older sister, Shaf, told about him: "He was jumped yesterday at 9 in the morning, relative to how it started. He was so stressed to arrive already. My father offered to drive him and he was not ready, he took my partner's car, drove and within an hour We were no longer able to contact him. At 1 am they knocked on our door and informed us. We were under crazy pressure and tried to believe that they probably took their cell phones or something, we were uncertain. He was the eldest son of Tom and Amir, Yam is the eldest sister. He was surrounded by an insane amount of friends, he always liked to help everyone, he was funny and united the family.
Already from a young age he wanted to contribute to the country. He was motivated and wanted to enlist only for combat. He started with the paratroopers, was trained as a combat medic and on the course he stood out very much, and they took him to a combat training course. He wanted to contribute and make an impact as much as possible so he did everything to move to an even more elite unit. He moved to the Maglan unit about two months ago. He really invested to fill gaps and to become a competent fighter. His commander told us today that he was just happy. Even yesterday morning he had a smile on his face and he was happy that he had the right to go and defend the country. His death was among the first. They were the first to go to the Nahal Oz area and found themselves in an encounter with the terrorists.
We were told that he was a hero in the middle of the action and saved many civilians. The only thing that consoles me is that he was really happy and he fell when he fulfilled all his ambitions. We are very painful and also full of pride. He was where he wanted to be, he wanted to protect the country."