Herzog honors Capt. Uri Mordechai Shani, who fell in battle on Oct. 7

Israeli President Isaac Herzog participated on Wednesday evening in a Chanukah candle lighting event honoring the memory of Israel Defense Forces Capt. Uri Mordechai Shani, who was killed in action at the Kissufim post near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023.

“May we be worthy of the light that Uri left behind, and that all our sons and daughters who fell for the people and the state have left behind,” Herzog tweeted in Hebrew.

The ceremony took place in the South Hebron Hills in Judea, at a synagogue named after the captain—Heichal Uri (“Hall of My Fire” in English).

Herzog said he was moved to light the fourth candle of Chanukah together with Mordechai Shani’s family, loved ones and community.

A resident of Kiryat Arba, also in Judea, Mordechai Shani, a 22-year-old platoon commander in the 51st Battalion of the Golani Infantry Brigade, dispatched some of his troops to defend Kibbutz Kissufim on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, in the wake of the invasion of thousands of Gazan terrorists of the northwestern Negev.

Mordechai Shani remained with six soldiers at the Kissufim junction, fighting against Hamas terrorists until he and his men were surrounded, according to Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, an NGO composed of IDF reservists.

Running out of ammunition and almost out of water, Mordechai Shani decided to run toward the Kissufim military post to replenish their ammunition but was hit by shrapnel from a mortar shell.

He was posthumously promoted from lieutenant to captain.

He is survived by his parents, Yehoshua and Shulamit, and his siblings, Noa, Rinat, Elihu, Tzofiya, Elisha and Malachi.