JTA — Hundreds gathered on Sunday night at Israel’s military cemetery on Mount Herzl for the funeral of Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak Katz, an American-born Israeli soldier who was killed by a rocket attack on Saturday in southern Lebanon.

Katz, 22, from New Haven, Connecticut, was the fifth Israeli soldier killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy in Lebanon, resumed attacks on Israel following a 2024 ceasefire, after Israeli and US strikes on Iran last month. A sixth soldier was killed on Monday.

“With unspeakable tragedy I regret to inform you that my 22 year old son Moshe Yitzchak a*h a sergeant in the idf, fell in battle in Lebanon,” Katz’s father, Mendy, wrote in a post on Facebook on Saturday. “My oldest Son with a zest for life and jokes. Burial is tomorrow in israel. Maybe we only share good news. My heart is shattered and the wound is real.”

Mendy Katz had been in Israel when the war began and posted on March 7 about witnessing his son’s graduation from basic training with the Israel Defense Forces before returning to the United States via Egypt.

During the funeral on Sunday, Katz, who was posthumously promoted from corporal to sergeant and was affiliated with Chabad, was eulogized by a host of fellow soldiers who referred to him as a “true friend” who “always used to make........

© The Times of Israel