Alim Abdullah

Lt. Col. Alim Abdallah, 40, the deputy commander of the 300th “Baram” Regional Brigade, was killed in a gun battle along the Lebanon border on October 9, while he was responding to an infiltration alert.

Abdallah, a married father of three, hailed from the northern Druze village of Yanuh-Jat and served in the military for close to 23 years.

His cousin, Fahed Abdullah, told the Ma’ariv news site that “Alim was a cut above the rest. This is a huge loss for his family, for the [Druze] community and for the IDF.”

Fahed said that Alim “was a family man and a commander who was always looking out for his soldiers and his own family… his children are very connected to him — I can’t explain their feelings, they’re deeply sad and I have no idea how they will deal with the loss.”

“We’re picking up the pieces — the situation is not good, it’s very hard for us, but we have to give strength to the IDF soldiers,” Fahed added. “It’s hard for us to accept the news that landed on us. It is a loss for us, for the family, for the country, the community, the military. Alim should be remembered always as someone who saved the north in this incident — he sacrificed himself and his life for the residents of the north.”

The mayor of Yanuh-Jat, Mudi Sa’ad, eulogized the fallen lieutenant-colonel as “a modest, pleasant man who loved his family very much,” according to Haaretz. “He was a man of values, morals… he was a great ambassador for his family, for the village and for the Druze people in our beloved land.”