An Israeli special forces officer who was killed during the Lebanon war was nominated for Israel’s top military honor.
Ma’ariv quoted senior officers as saying Sunday that Maj. Roi Klein, who served as deputy regimental commander in the Golani infantry brigade, was nominated for the Valor Medal. An official announcement is expected later this week.
Klein jumped on a grenade when his unit came under Hezbollah attack during last year’s fighting, giving his life to spare his men. He would be the first soldier in more than 30 years to win the medal.
A total of 41 servicemen have received the decoration, many of them posthumously. Klein, 31, had a wife and two children.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert eulogized Klein in a speech halfway through the Lebanon war.
“I think about Roi, and my soul cannot find peace,” Olmert said. While leading his men, Olmert said, Klein “jumped on the grenade thrown at them, absorbed the force of the explosion on his body and saved the lives of his fighters. He still had the chance to murmur ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One’ and asked the signal operator to report his death.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
