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Capt. Roy Miller and Capt. Ilay Lugasi fell in Gaza battles

324 Israeli soldiers have been during the ground invasion of Gaza.

By World Israel News Staff

Two Israeli soldiers fell in battle while fighting in the Gaza Strip against Hamas terrorists on Wednesday. Their names were cleared for publication on Thursday morning.

Captain Roy Miller, a 21-year-old from the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya, was killed in a firefight with terrorists in the northern Strip. He served as the platoon commander for the Rotem Regiment in the Givati ​​Brigade.

“I am proud of my kind-hearted and handsome son, who excelled in everything, proud of his fighting spirit, his choices, and the care he showed towards his soldiers and others,” Miller’s mother, Ariela, told Hebrew-language media.

“Our hearts are broken. The city of Herzliya is in pain and shares in the heavy grief of the Miller family,” said Herzliya Mayor Yariv Fisher in a media statement.

“Roy was a young man blessed with talents and joie-de-vivre that was cut short. The loss is unbearable.”

In a separate incident on Wednesday, Captain Ilay Elisha Lugasi, who was 21 and from the now largely-evacuated northern city of Kiryat Shmona, was killed by an anti-tank missile in the central Gaza neighborhood of Shejaiya.

Lugasi was a team commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 75th Battalion.

His mother, Smadar, is a longtime municipal employee of the city of Kiryat Shmona. Lugasi was her only child, whom she raised as a single mother.

“I am writing these lines in complete shock and in unbearably deep pain. Dear Smadar, the whole of Kiryat Shmona embraces and supports you. Today our city lost one of its best sons and heroes. Rest in peace Eli, and may we all be worthy of you,” Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern wrote on Facbeook.

He added that Lugasi had been wounded in the beginning of the way, underwent a rehabilitation process, and begged to be sent back into battle.

324 Israeli soldiers have been during the ground invasion of Gaza.