Staff Sergeant Yonatan (Sergey) Wolsiuk
"At first we thought of the craziest possibilities, maybe he was badly wounded and another force took him back to Israel," said Avraham, a member of the unit. "About 24 hours later we heard the news. I remember the company commander said that it's not only a partial consolation; we should think it a full consolation that he was found dead. Only then did I truly understand how much the commanders feared that Hizbullah had taken his body. Still, said Avraham, it took hours for them to come to terms with the death of the quiet soldier who immigrated to Israel by himself from Ukraine and changed his name from Sergey to the biblical Yehonatan, through his unit affectionately nicknamed him Johnny. "We didn't cry, we couldn't allow ourselves to cry. But inside we were broken, shattered," said Avraham," we sat there in the dark and thought about him, this guy who came to Israel alone and made it to one of the IDF's top units…It's hard to believe how much we're still learning about him, he was killed because of his bravery, because of his sense of sacrifice, it was in his nature."
Yehonatan was killed on July 20, 2006 in the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras. He was 21 years old.
Yehonatan was killed on July 20, 2006 in the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras. He was 21 years old.