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Lieutenant Zohar Halamish, blessed be his memory, fell in action during Operation Peace for Galilee on May 18, 1993. He was 21 at the time of his death.

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The son of Narkis and Asaf, Zohar was born on Kibbutz Maagan Michael on March 13, 1972. He enlisted in the army on February 1991 with the personal ID number 5040452. He served in the artillery corps, in the Paratroopers Brigade Unit: Crow. The place he fell was the eastern area of Lebanon, and he is buried on Kibbutz Maagan Michael. He is survived by his parents and their spouses; three sisters: Hila, Shahar and Liron, and two brothers: Oriya and Nadav.

 

Zohar Halamish, son of Narkis and Asaf, was born on Kibbutz Maagan Michael on March 13, 1972. He was killed in South Lebanon by Hezbullah on 18 May 1993. His parents divorced when he was just two years old. Following the divorce, they both remarried and each one started their own families. His mother married Natty and his father married Lynn. Zoher maintained close contact with both families.

 

When he graduated from high school on Maagen Michael, Zohar enlisted in the Air Force. After a year in the pilot’s course, he transferred to the Artillery Corps officers’ course. Zohar joined, as an Artillery Corps officer, an elite paratroopers unit, whose mission was to operate against a front of Hezbollah in the region Eloise, an eastern sector of south Lebanon. The unit went out on a long night mission in a difficult and complex area, and settled in a predefined place. In the early morning, the soldiers identified two terrorists who were positioned at guard posts, and heard voices of terrorists moving toward them. Suddenly, they opened fire at close range. The unit fired at the guards and hit one of them, and the soldiers continued firing in the direction of the shooting. During the exchange of fire, Zohar was killed and another soldier was lightly wounded. During this event, a rescue unit arrived, and they also encountered the terrorists. Tzur, the commander of the unit, was seriously wounded and died after four months from his wounds. The remaining soldiers were evacuated under fire, by heavy artillery and helicopters, which carried Zohar’s body.
 

Zohar is survived by two bereaved families: three brothers of the Hallamish family: Shahar, Hila and Uriah, and two siblings from the Sfindler family: Liron and Nadav. His namesake fit him beautifully – Zohar, which means splendor or radiance. Zohar, a bright kid, humane and deeply curious about many things: scientific experiments, computers, photography, karate and medicine. Despite his apparent leanings towards science, Zohar wrote song lyrics, which were discovered only after his death. On Israel Memorial Day, three years before he was killed, he wrote a eulogy to himself: "the green lichens grow graves and colorful wild flowers around ..."

Zohar will always remain in our hearts: a soft infant, a mischievous boy, a charming young man, a talented boy, a great brother and ambitious officer.