Sgt. Kobi Mizrahi

May 11, 2004 - Sgt. Kobi Mizrahi (Zagouri), 20, of Moshav Mata, was killed with five other soldiers when Palestinian gunmen detonated a mine under their armored personal carrier in the Gaza Strip.

Mizrahi and his Givati Brigade comrades were returning from an operation in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City to destroy weapons factories when their APC was hit. The blast detonated left-over explosives the engineering unit was transporting, destroying the APC and killing the soldiers instantly.

A graduate of the Agricultural High School in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem section, Kobi Mizrahi was described by a cousin, Haim Ganon, as "crazy about the army" and determined to serve in the elite Givati combat engineering company. Just three weeks before his death, on Independence Day, his unit received a citation for its operations in the Gaza Strip against terrorists.

Elad, a friend of Kobi's from high school, said, "He was head and shoulders above us, and I'm not saying this just because of what happened. He really was. He always had a smile for everyone; you never saw him unhappy. "

Sgt. Kobi Mizrahi was buried at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. He is survived by his mother, Rivka, and five older brothers and sisters.