Tzafrir Bar-Or hy"d
Tzafrir Bar-Or hy"dCourtesy of the family

Sivan Bar Or, whose husband Major Tzafrir Bar-Or hy”d was killed in the IDF's Gaza counter-terror operation Protective Edge, gave birth Thursday night to a baby boy in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital.

Tafrir was Deputy Commander of the Golani Brigade's Reconaissance Battalion.

Siven was in her 26th week of pregnancy when she learned that her husband had been killed in Gaza.

The family members said they had mixed feelings when the baby – who will grow up without his father – was born. “Tzafrir is with us all of the time and watching from above. We are happy and sad,” they said.

"Tzafrir would have wanted us to carry on and to have the child, who resembles him very much, grow up in a happy family. This is what we will do.”

In an interview with Smadar Shir in Yediot Aharonot, the widow said: “I always told Tzafrir, 'I have to give birth when you start studying at the Command and Staff College, and you have to be at the birth. There is no way that I will give birth without you.' Who thought of war?”

Tzafrir was one of 13 soldiers killed in the battle for Shejaiya, a Hamas terror stronghold in Gaza, two weeks into the war.

Golani Brigade, armor and engineering corps forces were met with effective close range guerrilla actions. The dead are all from the Golani Brigade. The Brigade's commander, Col. Rasan Alian, was also lightly injured. 

The IDF released a timeline of the events on July 20, 2014.

In the first incident, at 1:05 a.m., an armored personnel carrier caught fire after an explosive device was set off under it. Seven soldiers were killed. Reportedly, the APC was not fitted with armor that can withstand this type of blast.

At 1:30 a.m., a soldier was killed when two soldiers got into a firefight with terrorists.

At 5:45 a.m., another Golani force got into a firefight with terrorists. Two soldiers were killed.

At 8:50 a.m., three soldiers were killed when a Golani squad was caught inside a burning building.