BROOKLINE, MASS. (WHDH) - Serving in the Special Forces unit of the Israeli Army, 22-year-old Yosef Guedalia immediately jumped into action to protect innocent people when Hamas attacked on Saturday.
“They actually get to a civilian, an elderly man that is critically wounded for 4 hours. He’s bleeding to death. Yosef gets out of the car with his friend,” Yosef’s brother Asher said. “They pack him up in the vehicle. They give him first aid, check he’s okay, bandage him and they drive him out, bring him out and go right back to fight.”
But during an exchange of gunfire, Yosef was struck and killed, leaving behind his young wife from Brookline, Massachusetts.
“Just a few hours ago he was with his wife. He said ‘goodbye, I’m going. I’ll see you soon,” he said to her. ‘I’ll see you soon’, like the other times he went out,” Asher said. “He didn’t know what he was getting into.”
Just five days before, Yosef and his wife Senai celebrated their first wedding anniversary.
“They actually just went on Friday on a tandem ride together. They were pushing up the hill,” Asher said. “He stopped pedaling and told her to push. She said ‘no, I can’t. I can’t do this alone.’ He said ‘no you can’ … little did we know she would have to.”
News of Yosef’s death made its way to Boston, and his funeral was on Wednesday in Israel. Speaking to 7News by Zoom, his older brother Asher said Yosef spent three and a half years in the Israeli Army, specializing in drone operations.
“We’re standing on Monday at the community-wide gathering, the rally on Boston Commons when feet away from me, one of our parents got a phone call and started wailing, and it turned out her son-in-law had passed away,” said Rabbi Yaakov Green of the Maimonides School.
Asher was also serving and survived, and he said he wished he could have another day tossing the frisbee with his best friend.
“Sadly I just have to talk to him up there while he’s looking down,” Asher said. “I’m sure he understands how proud we are of him.”
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