Corporal Hillel Nehemia Ofen

 

The note left behind by the IDF soldier Hillel Ofen who died from dehydration in training

The day after the funeral of the late IDF soldier Hillel Nehemia Ofen, who collapsed and died during military training, journalist and writer Tsur Ehrlich told about a special note that was found in the backpack that Ofen was carrying.

"The note found in the backpack of Hillel Nehemiah Ofen, who died from heatstroke during military training, deserves to be in the pocket of every Jew. Such a deep insight into the meaning of identity, the meaning of life, the meaning of togetherness, is like a refreshing drink of water and life in the social heatstroke that fell upon us," Ehrlich wrote on Facebook.

He added that it is "an all-encompassing, comprehensive fundamental truth, formulated with absolute simplicity, colloquially but with poetic precision. 'I belong': not in the sense of property and ownership, but in the sense of belonging and identification. This note, which according to his brother's testimony he composed himself, with incredible maturity, testifies to our loss.”

The note reads:

"I belong!

I belong to a family, a community, a society, a nation.

I belong to the country, to the homeland.

I belong to humanity, to conscience, to honor.

I belong to history, to the future.

I belong to joy, to pain, to expectations, to fear.

Everything that has passed and will pass over me and my people, everything that has been created

My identity, who I am, I belong to him.

And it is my duty to preserve, protect and maintain all of these.

To see to their permanence as much as I could.

And now, for this duty, I am yours.

I belong to weapons, to the necessities of victory, to the battle.

I belong!”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/375654

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6 other soldiers became dehydrated during deadly training exercise

Fellow soldier recounts exercise held during intense heat wave in which Corporal Hillel Ofen collapsed and died. A number of soldiers became dehydrated during the training exercise in which Corporal Hillel Ofen collapsed and died yesterday, according to one of Ofen's colleagues.

"We all felt dehydrated even before the training started, we couldn't rest," the friend told Channel 12 News. He said that Ofen "was not the only soldier who became dehydrated there, there were six other soldiers with him, some of them passed out and needed medical treatment. Throughout the day, the air conditioner in our tent did not work. We were very confused, there was a feeling that it is difficult to trust the system.”

During the exercise, the soldiers were required to crawl for 300 meters (about 1,000 feet) starting at midnight. Ofen became dehydrated during the training and fainted. He was later pronounced dead.

Questions have been raised as to why the decision was made to go ahead with the exercise during an intense heat wave in Israel.

Ofen was laid to rest at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem today (Tuesday).