Sergeant Yehonatan Yitzhak Samo from Carmei Tzur, was seriously injured in the battle in the center of the Gaza Strip and was transferred to Beilinson Hospital. The doctors fought for his life and in the end he was declared brain dead.
His family requested to donate his organs: his heart was transplanted in a 46-year-old man in Beilinson, his lungs in a 36-year-old man in Beilinson, his liver in a 51-year-old man in Ichilov, his liver lobe in an 8-month-old baby girl in Schneider, his kidney in a 10-year-old boy in Schneider, and another kidney in a 50-year-old man in Hadassah.
Yehonatan's family said: "Yehonatan was the eldest son of his parents Ayelet and Moshe, and a brother to Be'eri, Lavi, Tamar and Achinoam. He had big beautiful eyes and a captivating smile. He never complained about difficulties. As a teenager he was a counselor in the Bnei Akiva youth movement and volunteered in many places. He participated in academic programs for outstanding youth. He studied at the yeshiva 'Neve Shmuel' in the settlement of Efrat and then continued to pre-military training at 'Aderet' in Kfar Silver, which combines religious and secular people."
Dramatic documentation: the encounter in which the late Sergeant Yehonatan Yitzhak Samo was killed
"For the army, he was classified as an intelligence officer, but he insisted on doing significant service as a fighter in the paratroopers, like his uncles and cousins, some of whom are representatives in various units. During the war, he was in the position of control of the company commander and fought with the first force. Yehonatan signed an Edi card on his own initiative. His mother found the card one day and asked him about it. He replied to her - 'Yes, I signed a long time ago'. There was no hesitation at all whether to donate his organs. It was Yehonatan. He did everything with a smile out of understanding, commitment and a desire to help.
"The fact that a part of him will continue to live and help others - there is nothing more uplifting than that. Thanks to him, during the days of the shiva, many people signed an Edi card, and more will sign."