Ibrahim Kh'rubah

Warrant Officer Ibrahim Kharuba, 39, a tracker in the Gaza Division, from Maghar, was killed on October 7 while battling Hamas terrorists at the Nahal Oz IDF outpost.

The base was the site of the slaughter of 14 unarmed female observation soldiers, and the kidnapping of another 7, in a battle that became one of the symbols of the Hamas assault on southern Israel.

According to his family, Ibrahim was called to the border area with news of the Hamas invasion. There he fought against terrorists storming into Israel, before he was alerted that a large group had reached the Nahal Oz outpost. He engaged in a gun battle with dozens of terrorists inside the base, trying to protect the young recruits who were huddled in the bomb shelter, before he was killed.

He was buried on October 15 in Maghar. He is survived by his wife, Asmaa, their four children, Rafif, Leen, Muhammad and Jan, his parents, Hassan and Hamda, and his siblings Noura, Mahmad, Sleiman, Ahmed, Anwar and Azhar.

Eyal Eshel, the father of slain observation soldier Sgt. Roni Eshel, told Kan that he and other relatives of killed lookout soldiers “met with the family of Ibrahim Kharuba, the tracker who was killed and must be remembered. One of the people who fought. We heard that at 11:50 [that morning] he was still fighting and trying to protect the girls.”

His brother, Sleiman, told a Kan podcast that “it’s very important that the story of Ibrahim — that the country will understand and know what happened.”

“Ibrahim fought until his last moment,” he said. “Until his last breath. Until he fell in the bomb shelter.”

Sleiman said that Ibrahim enlisted in the IDF in 2002 and served initially in the Paratroopers Brigade, before setting off on a path as a career officer.

“Ibrahim was a great man, he loved to live, he loved sports,” he said, noting that he was also a devoted family man to his wife, children, siblings and parents.

“He always loved to help people, when our father had a heart attack he took care of him, he took care of all of us, he gave us support in every sense of the word — physical and mental,” he added. “He loved to help, wherever anyone needed… he helped me in every sense… He is so missed by us, at home, to his kids, they keep asking where he is.”
Source: The Times of Israel