Ilay Gabriel Atedgi

Son of Eti and Dan Yitzhak. He was born on 29 Heshvan 5763 (4 November 2002) in Kiryat Motzkin. Brother of Omer and Ofri.

Ilay grew up in Kiryat Motzkin. He studied at the Or Avner elementary school in nearby Kiryat Yam and at Ort Motzkin High School in his hometown, where he completed his studies in the electronics track.

From childhood he was energetic, curious, and mischievous, surrounded by good friends and always at the center of things. On school trips he would walk at the front, draw his classmates along with him, and keep morale high. With his wide, heart-melting smile he spread warmth, love, and a joy of life around him, and radiated personal charm, kindness, modesty, and optimism.

He loved sports. He played on the basketball team of the high school he attended and on the youth team of the Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin basketball club. In the summer of 2019, when he was seventeen, he took part with Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin in the American Maccabiah youth games in Mexico, and his team won the title. Ilay also loved soccer. He was a devoted fan of Maccabi Haifa and went to the team’s matches at every opportunity.

On 15 March 2021 he enlisted in the IDF and served as a combat soldier in the Kfir Brigade. He was very proud to enlist in a combat role and dreamed of advancing in his service to the position of company commander.

During training he attended the medics course, continued to the squad commanders course, and later went to the officers course. After the course he served as a platoon commander in the Shimshon Battalion (92) of the Kfir Brigade.

Ilay’s soldiers said that he cared for them like a father for his children, gave them a sense of security, and made a point of being a personal example. He always excelled in every mission, both as a soldier and as a commander, and did everything with a smile, with love, and with great devotion, while instilling in his soldiers the values of giving, love of the people and the land, and love of others.

After he completed his role as platoon commander with distinction, he was promoted to deputy commander of the battalion’s rifle company. The role gave him a great sense of meaning. He carried it out with a smile, as was his way, and excelled in it as well.

The knowledge that we have no other country was what drove Ilay’s high motivation and his desire to contribute to the country to the best of his ability. He was a beacon of courage and values, lighting the way for others and fighting out of love for the homeland, with endless devotion and a sense of mission.

He was always ready to give more of himself, to help at every opportunity, and to be there for those around him with support, encouragement, strength, a smile, and a kind word. The sentence that accompanied him on his military path and in his personal life, and that he set as a guiding message in the commander’s book, was: “The decision to do more than others.”

Ilay fell on 23 December 2024 during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip in the Swords of Iron war, in the explosion of a charge detonated remotely by terrorists, together with two other soldiers.

His sister writes: My brother Ilay is the person closest to me, the middle child of the family and the most modest and good brother there is. He always looked after others and saw their good before his own, and I had an immense privilege to be in his presence and to grow up beside him. He was my best friend and understood me as only he could. We would argue and make up, and always enjoy being together and love each other more than anyone in the world.

May his memory be a blessing.