Lior Raver, father of 19-year-old Staff Sergeant Yoav Rover who fell last Friday in the Gaza Strip, spoke on Sunday morning on the “Kalman Lieberman” program on Kan Reshet B.
“We still haven’t processed it,” Lior said, describing life in the aftermath of the devastating news. “We are living in some sort of ongoing nightmare. The heart refuses to accept what the mind understands. We know, but we’re still waiting for Yoav to come back — and that won’t happen.”
Ahead of his son's funeral, which is scheduled for today, Lior shared: “Yoav will arrive in an open casket. Though we were warned that his condition is difficult, they explained everything to us with great sensitivity. We still want to see him, to give him a last hug if possible. To sit beside him, with him, as long as we can — and then we will accompany him on his final journey.”
“It’s incredibly hard to sum up a life, short as it may have been, of a beloved firstborn son who was admired by so many people, friends,” Lior continued. “He touched so many lives. Parents think they know their child well, but in times like these, as people come to comfort you, you truly begin to see the immense light he spread.”
Lior recalled his son’s determination to serve in a combat role: “He wanted meaningful combat service — it didn’t matter where. When I asked him, ‘Yoav, where do you want to go?’ he said, ‘Dad, it doesn’t matter. I want to do my three years the best I can and contribute in the way I believe I must.’ He could have chosen many other paths. He was very talented and received offers from several units. He fought to be assigned a combat profile — it wasn’t something to be taken for granted.”
Within the elite Yahalom unit, Yoav was selected for the explosive ordnance disposal track. “It really suited his personality,” Lior elaborated. “To be the responsible one, level-headed and calm under pressure, someone who makes rational decisions. That’s what they need there — that’s what they look for.” Initially, Yoav served mainly in the north, but about a month ago, his unit was redeployed to the south in preparation for the current operation in Gaza.
“That’s when we became concerned,” Lior noted. “This is a different kind of fighting, much more intense. We asked him, ‘How do you go into that kind of hell? Where does the courage come from?’ He was very reassuring, saying, ‘Dad, we’re highly professional. We have a set protocol. We do everything to avoid unnecessary risk.’ But of course, the risk is always there.”
The IDF is still investigating the incident in which Yoav was killed. “We understand the mission was to enter a building with specific intelligence that it contained a shaft leading to a tunnel — possibly holding hostages, or at least offering information about them. The entire commando brigade’s mission in that area of Khan Yunis is to retrieve hostages or intelligence regarding their whereabouts,” Lior said.
He emphasized how meaningful this mission was to his son: “This was their life’s mission. When they went in, they took on unreasonable risks. People ask, ‘Why not drop a bomb on the building?’ And I, a father who lost his son, am the first to ask, ‘Why send them in like that?’ But knowing Yoav went in with pride, on what could have been a mission to rescue hostages or secure vital information — I know he went in proud, and he truly loved what he did.”
The collapse of the building in Khan Yunis claimed the lives of four soldiers: Staff Sergeant Tom Rothstein, Sergeant First Class Uri Yhonatan Cohen, Master Sergeant (res.) Chen Gross, and Staff Sergeant Yoav Raver. Five other soldiers were wounded — one seriously and four moderately.
Eight IDF soldiers fell in Gaza this past week. Since the start of the ground operation, 424 soldiers have fallen. On Tuesday, it was cleared for publication that three soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion — Staff Sergeant Lior Steinberg (20, Petah Tikva), Staff Sergeant Ofek Barhana (20, Yavne), and Staff Sergeant Omer Van Gelder (22, Maale Adumim) — were killed by an explosive device in northern Gaza. Master Sergeant (res.) Alon Farkas (27, Kibbutz Cabri) fell last Tuesday in battle in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of northern Gaza.