Funeral of Major Yochai Kalengel hy''d (illustration)
Funeral of Major Yochai Kalengel hy''d (illustration)Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Hundreds of people, among them family members, IDF soldiers and friends, paid their last respects on Thursday at the funeral of Staff Sergeant Dor Chaim Nini hy''d (20), who was murdered by the Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on the Golan Heights the day before.

Nini was the first slain soldier to be buried in moshav Shtulim's cemetery outside Ashdod, and just before his burial a new military section of the graveyard was prepared.

Aside from Nini, Major Yochai Kalengel hy''d (25) who commanded the Tzabar unit of the Givati Brigade that Nini also served in was killed in the attack, and was buried hours earlier at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl cemetery.

"At the funeral his (Dor's) father told me that when Dor would come home he would ask for money from his mother to give to soldiers who didn't have," said Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home), who attended the funeral as a representative of the government.

When coming home "that was the first thing he did. Always," said Ben-Dahan. He emphasized "with soldiers like this, no power in the world will defeat us."

The deputy minister compared Dor to the Biblical King David, noting "on the one hand the soldiers were strong as a tree at the time of war, and on the other they were gentle and doing acts of charity and kindness. Fortunate are we to have merited to learn a bit of his traits. May his memory be a blessing."

Dor's mother Sima eulogized her young son, saying "my dear Dori, if I ever harmed you I'm sorry. My beloved child, you've been lost. You went to the army and you returned in a coffin."

"When you were still a child you loved action and wanted to be a combat soldier," said Dor's aunt Limor. "You were your father's right hand, you always helped him. Two days ago we understood you were in the north and we heard about the incident. I had a feeling that something happened. I prayed that it wasn't you."