Motorcycle procession honors fallen IDF soldier
Sgt. First Class David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23-years old from Bet El, was shot and critically wounded last Tuesday as the IDF began withdrawing from Jenin. Yitzchak, a non-commissioned officer in the Egoz special operations commando unit, was the only Israeli killed in the two-day operation. He was shot in a tight alleyway while securing the beginning of the military’s withdrawal.
More than 1,000 IDF troops participated in the two-day raid, in what is believed to be the largest deployment in Judea and Samaria in two decades. At least 12 Palestinians were killed in the operation. All of them were claimed as combatants by terrorist organizations. It was reported that the security forces located and confiscated thousands of weapons in the refugee camp and the city of Jenin, including explosive charges, ammunition, weapons, and explosives laboratories.
On Wednesday, Hebrew media published what appeared to be a journal entry written by Yitzchak in which he stressed the importance of “not getting bogged down by nonsense and superficial pleasures. Just be good, without making a big deal about it.”
Yitzchak was an avid motorcyclist and toured Israel many times over. Before the Jenin operation, he left his motorcycle with Moshe Rontsky, a 41-year-old resident of Itamar.
“After the attack in Eli, the soldiers from the Egoz unit were stationed in the area of Itamar,” Rontsky said to the media. “On Shabbat, some fighters remained in the settlement to guard us, and we invited them to dinner with us. They told us that David rides a motorcycle because my son is a motorcycle mechanic. David immediately connected with him. We went on a trip together on our motorcycles, and David left his motorcycle with us to travel together last Friday, but he did not return to us.”
Rontsky wanted to return the motorcycle to Yitzchak’s family in Bet El, turning the simple errand into a fitting tribute to the fallen soldier.
“We decided that the family should be honored by returning the motorcycle and not leaving it with us,” Rontsky said. “Hundreds of bikers from all over the country and social media gathered here together to pay their last respects.” He further emphasized that “everyone together here salutes the hero warrior who gave his life for us, without regard for whether our opinion was one way or the other, but simply because he loved us all.”
Hundreds of motorcyclists participated in the event. The motorcade stopped at the gas station near Eli, where four Jews were murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack three weeks ago. At the scene of the attack, they dismounted their motorcycles and sang ‘HaTikva’ together with the workers of the Humus restaurant which was attacked.
From there, they proceeded to Beit El and returned David’s motorcycle to his family. The family was still sitting “shiva,” the traditional period of mourning. Hundreds of residents joined the gathering.
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