“If our Father in Heaven decides that someone needs to die for our people, it’s the greatest merit in the world.”

By IDF Club

Sgt. Maj. (res.) Idan Keinan was killed on November 17, 2024 in the northern Gaza Strip by a sniper.

“We’re simply talking about a terrorist, a mouse who lives underground, comes out of his tunnel, shoots, and flees,” noted an Israeli journalist.

The 21-year-old from Ramat Gan was part of the Nachshon Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, operating in Beit Lahia on the outskirts of the major town of Jabalia that was the focus of the IDF’s attention, with over a thousand Hamas terrorists captured and another thousand killed, according to the IDF.

Idan is survived by his parents, a brother and a sister, Linoy, who wrote in a social media post that Keinan had “died as a hero,” but that she “will never manage to get over a loss such as you.”

“I can’t believe that you left me like that and went to Heaven, my beloved brother,” she wrote, describing him as “the most good-hearted boy in the world” and asking him to “protect us from above.”

She also posted a letter that her brother had written to his grandmother two months ago about his strong feelings for his country and people.

After talking of two soldiers who had recently been killed in action, he noted that they died “for the country and we all know it…and are happy to be here instead of the civilians and the country that we so love.”

“If our Father in Heaven decides that someone needs to die for our people, it’s the greatest merit in the world,” he wrote.

Keinan had posted to Instagram last October 7th that “No one here will sleep until you [all] feel safe, I promise you.”

Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama Cohen, called the fallen soldier “an angel and brave sharpshooter” who was “suffused with love of country and the Jewish people…. We in the municipality will do all we can to hug and strengthen the precious family.”