Who is Halel Solomon, the 20-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier killed in Gaza?

A 20-year-old soldier described by the Israeli military as being of Indian descent is among the Israeli troops killed thus far during the fight with Hamas. Staff-Sergeant Halel Solomon, from the southern Israeli town of Dimona, was killed when his Namer armoured personnel carrier was hit by an anti-tank guided missile fired by Hamas on Wednesday (1 November), according to the Times of Israel. In that incident, at least 11 soldiers from the Givati Infantry Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion were slain. Dimona’s Mayor Benny Bitton extended his sympathies to Solomon’s family in a Facebook post. “It is with great sorrow and grief that we announce the death of a son of Dimona, Halel Solomon, in the battle in Gaza,” Dimona’s Mayor, Benny Bitton said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “We share in the grief of the parents, Ronit and Mordechai, and the sisters: Yasmin, Hila, Vered, and Shaked …. Halel aspired to do a meaningful service and enlisted in the Givati (Brigade). Halel was a devoted son and had respect for his parents always in his eyes. Possessing immense good qualities he believed in endless giving, modesty, and humility. The whole city of Dimona is grieving his passing,” Bitton wrote. ‘Little India’ Dimona is a town in the south of Israel identified with Israel’s nuclear reactor but some also describe it as “little India” given the large concentration of Jews from India in the township. Indian community members told news agency PTI that he was “a young man with pleasant manners and a very bright future ahead.” They expressed huge sorrow at his passing away and at the loss of lives of other young Israelis “fighting a just war for Israel’s existence.”

6 of the 9 Israeli soldiers killed in battle overnight, fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza, trying rescue our hostages:

Lt. Ariel Reich, Sgt. Adi Danan, Staff Sgt. Halel Solomon, Staff Sgt. Erez Mishlovsky, Cpl. Lior Siminovich & Staff Sgt. Roei Dawi.

May their memories always… pic.twitter.com/BaADxy9p9E

— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) November 1, 2023

At least 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the battle in Gaza in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “difficult war” with “painful losses,” but vowed to continue “until victory.” “We are in a difficult war. This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses,” Netanyahu said. “We know that every soldier of ours is an entire world. The entire people of Israel embrace you, the families, from the depth of our hearts. We are all with you during your heavy sorrow. Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home,” the Israeli Prime Minister said. “I promise the citizens of Israel: We will complete the work — we will continue until victory,” he stressed. At least 1,400 Israelis were killed in a deadly attack carried out by Hamas on Israel’s southern communities on 7 October. They also took at least 240 people as hostages during that surprise infiltration. Israel, backed by the United States and some other Western nations, declared war against Hamas which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 with two stated goals — elimination of the terror organisation and freeing the hostages. More than 8,000 people have died in Gaza since Israel launched a counter-offensive by first carrying out widespread air strikes and then slowly launching ground incursions that have been intensifying over the last three days. With inputs from PTI