A 22-year-old Israeli army reservist who grew up outside Washington, DC, and rushed back to Israel to fight Hamas was killed when anti-tank missile fire hit his unit near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon on Friday, the Israeli military said.
Omer Balva was one of more than 300,000 reservists called up by the Israel Defense Forces after declaring war on Hamas following the militant group’s surprise terrorist attack on October 7.
Balva served as a staff sergeant and platoon commander in the 9203rd battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade.
“Yesterday, SSGT (res.) Omer Balva, a reservist in the Artillery Corps, was killed by anti-tank missile fire adjacent to the northern border,” the IDF wrote in its Friday newsletter.
Balva, an Israeli-American dual citizen with Israeli parents, grew up in Rockville, Maryland, where he attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day school.
Omer Balva was killed when anti-tank missile fire hit his unit on Friday. Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School/Facebook
The school paid tribute to the 2019 graduate on social media, noting that he was an “unashamed defender of the State of Israel.”
Balva joined the IDF after moving to Israel in 2019 but was in the US visiting a childhood friend when he was called up for reserve duty earlier this month, NBC 4 Washington reported.
He was also a student at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, where he was working toward a Bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics, the university said in announcing his death.
Balva is one of more than 300,000 reservists called up by the Israel Defense Forces. Ethan Missner/Facebook
Ethan Missner, who has been friends with Balva since they were just 6 years old, said he wants him to be remembered as a hero.
“I want him to be remembered as someone who was selfless and proud of what he did, and as a hero because he was a hero. He was a hero while he was alive. He was a hero before he went into the military because he made everybody feel great,” Missner told NBC 4.
Balva had visited Missner in the US and the two had spent time together in the past few weeks before Balva returned to Israel to fight in the war.
Balva was visiting a childhood friend in the US when he was called to fight in the war. IDF
“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. Everyone around him had a smile on their face because he would always smile at them and laugh with them. That’s how I want him to be remembered,” added Missner.
Jagger Balkin, a friend of Balva and Missner, said his friend’s love for Israel grew stronger during the trip where the high school student spent three months living in the Jewish state.
“Ethan went to Georgetown. I went to Penn State. We all wanted him to do the college experience with us,” Balkin told The Washington Post. “He was also accepted to American University and several other schools. But he chose the IDF instead. He loves Israel too much. It felt like a calling, something he needed do.”
Thousands of people attended Balva’s funeral on Sunday. Ethan Missner/Facebook
Balva has big plans for the future, including proposing to his girlfriend and working for his father’s flower business.
Thousands of people flocked to Balva’s funeral held Sunday in Herzliya, a city north of Tel Aviv, his former teacher Akiva Gersh told The Washington Post.
During the service, his father and three siblings “talked about how even though Omer was in the village where he was killed for only a few days, all the villagers knew and loved him,” Gersh said.
“That’s how he is … he knows what he wants to do and where he needs to be. And everywhere, people always love him,” added Gersh.
Among those present was William Daroff, CEO at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“A blessing to attend the funeral of Staff Sgt (res) Omer Balva z”l. A hero and patriot. May his memory forever be a blessing. May his strength carry us, the army, and the hostages forward in his merits,” Daroff wrote on Facebook.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
